QuattroRomeo

Very interesting so far, thank you! We'll be doing the Med on the Jade next fall, so this will be a great help!

Yes HAL docks there , we docked in Cartagena 3 times, twice on HAL and earlier this month on NCL . We took tours in the mornings, which bypass the terminal shops and go right up to the ship upon return, so then we just take the ship shuttle bus back to the terminal shops and oasis area discussed here, then shuttle back to the ship. You can also walk-it's about 10 minutes, but it is very hot and humid!

P.S. get some coffee beans at the Juan Valdez coffee shop..they are very good..

Try twinislandexcursions.com art gallery tour for something different and fun. We enjoyed it on a previous trip.

(haha this post is sort of related, but I really intended to post it to another thread about the bottle of wine you get if you book Cagney's the first night!)

 

I don't know if the house wines are fleetwide or by the ship, but a couple of weeks ago on Pearl, it wasn't Tisdale--both comp bottles we received during the week were this label:

 

 

We had this one on the Sun this month too. Same one we've had several times on HAL. It's pretty good!

Helane, if you're having any trouble negotiating the forums, (and they can be confusing when you are new to them) there are 2 new easier ways to find your roll call :

- roll up to the top of this page until you see the yellow horizontal bar that starts with User CP, then click the fifth one over that reads Roll Call Tool , and just fill in your sailing info to find your roll call and start posting there. Or:

- since you are posting on the Norwegian general forum here, scroll up to the blue horizontal bar that reads Norwegian Cruise Line, above that there is an icon to create a New Thread, and above that there is a star that reads New! Find your Norwegian roll call. Just click there to get to your sailing group, and join the roll call by replying to the last message there. Good luck with your excursion! We were just in Cartagena and it is hot and humid!

You might try inquiring about a half day tour from a company like Curacao-Actief.com

We booked them for our recent cruise and were very pleased with the service.

If you are looking for a more upscale restaurant for a nice dinner before you depart, Salvatore's Italian Gardens is at the corner of Genesee and Transit.

Thank you-now this restaurant we know! We usually stay at Salvatore's Garden Place hotel , but this year the parksleepfly option was sold out for our timeframe. Italian Gardens restaurant is a fun place to go when there is time for it, especially at Christmas with all of their decorations!

How about Danny's

 

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g60974-d408587-Reviews-Danny_s_Restaurant-Buffalo_New_York.html

If you want REAL Buffalo chicken wings or other good food, go to DUFF's on Dick Road down from the airport, not far from the Homewood Suites.

Thank you we will have to try these on a future trip, since we just returned from our cruise.

(I had originally posted this on the Florida departure ports forum since we were close to our cruise date but I knew lots of Canucks like us fly out of Buffalo to Florida departure ports. However, the thread got moved to NY departure ports by I assume the moderator, so I missed my target audience).

I really appreciate your taking the time to make suggestions!!

Can I ask who you used?

We used Jose Villa Jr., I found him on tourguides viator. He also has a site called cartagenadestiny.com

Our tour was on Dec 14 from NCL Sun. He was very good responding to my messages setting things up; tell him Pam & Ray were just there and referred him to you for a ship excursion, and I am sure he will be happy to set up whatever suits you!

I am wondering if anyone has done the NCL Old City & Spanish Fortress excursion and can share their thoughts? It takes you inside the fortress, to Las Bovedas, Plaze de Bolivar, the Inquisition Palace, the gold museam, and San Pedro Claver's Sanctuary. It is only $64 a person, but I am wondering if we are better off trying to do some of this on our own, maybe using the hop on/hop off bus?

You might consider doing a private tour.

We just returned from our cruise and visited Cartagena; for about the same price ( $120 for over 3 hours), the 2 of us had a private custom designed tour. We have been to Cartagena twice before so wanted to see places in the old city and Getsemani. It was wonderful to be able to go where you wanted and still have a local that could explain the history, plus no worries about getting lost or wasting time. We were picked up at the dock and returned with no problems at all!

Try curacao-actief.com. we have enjoyed their tours, and next week's cruise we are trying their snorkelling one! They are very helpful with emailing info while setting up your tour.

The port town itself is very walkable so don't worry about a tour there.

And I thought I was the only holdout. :D

 

Thanks, Cruise Critic!

Same here!

This enhancement will be great.

Hi-depending on which search results page you land on for Holiday Inn, some results show a "Cruise-Airport Holiday Inn Express on 17th" and some results show "Holiday Inn Convention Centre". So it is confusing!! The link below shows if you book the one on 17th St., you can definitely walk from Embassy Suites, past the shopping area, and then to Holiday Inn Express. We have walked past it several times on our way to Walgreen's drug store from Embassy Suites. Enjoy your cruise!

https://maps.google.ca/maps?daddr=1500+SE+15th+Ave,+Fort+Lauderdale,+FL+33316,+United+States&ll=26.10008,-80.128516&spn=0.008007,0.009645&gl=ca&hq=holiday+inn+fort+lauderdale+17th+st&panel=1&fb=1&dirflg=d&geocode=0,26.100081,-80.127297&cid=11479785435622997866&t=m&z=17

We usually stay at Embassy; it is a short walk from Embassy to Holiday Inn, the 2 hotels are on opposite sides of the supermarket, so you can't go wrong!

We often fly out of Buffalo to the Florida ports, but haven't found a good restaurant to go to when we stay the night before the flight. Any suggestions for a casual place with decent food within a few minutes drive of airport hotels? Maybe on Gennessee or Transit Roads?

Does anyone remember if there is a magnifying mirror in the bathrooms on NCL? Or is that what you mean by makeup mirror?

Thanks Mike for sharing this, you are right - it is a great read with lots of detail!

Thanks PEI good catch! We'll be recording it. Also have the Epic one saved to DVR.. like to watch it now and then when we need a cruise fix..!

St. Thomas...we really wanted to snorkel too! We ended up shopping. I bought my wife a 1 ct. set of diamond stud earrings for our anniversary!

Well.. if we are cancelled for Turtle Cove, maybe I'll tell DH that jewellery shopping is the alternate excursion!...we celebrated our 25th this year so not such a stretch !

Happy Anniversary to you and Ginny and glad you had a great cruise to celebrate!

Thank you for review and photos. You mentioned that a ship snorkel tour was cancelled-which island was it?

Well....let me say this...one of the reasons we wanted to go shopping this time in Aruba was because the last time we were there, like this time, we arrived at 1 pm. We went on Bully's taxi tour and by the time we got back, the stores were all closed. This time we skipped a tour since we had already been all over the island....see my links for the pictures and review from last time.

 

The stores were 98% open on this Sunday. I beleive they start closing early on Sunday's but we went into a lot of stores. I just didn't take many pictures of the insides of the stores. Most of the shopping is done on the main street, which is an easy walk. Thanks for asking. Hope you are enjoying the review and pictures!

Thank you! Like you, we have been on tours there before, but always arrived much earlier and on weekdays, so it wasn't hard to find shops open afterward. I guess we'll have to shop pretty much right away when we get there in December! So glad to hear you enjoyed your Sun cruise, and your photos are terrific! Not hard to understand why they are happy islands!

Thank you for an interesting review! Do you remember if the shops in Aruba were mostly open or closed, since it was a Sunday?

Talk about anticipation! We're already on page 2 and the review hasn't even started yet!

Looking forward to it.

I e-mailed her yesterday and got a quick reply. I am looking forward to touring with her next April!

Thanks for the update! Will let you know how we make out in December.

Worst thing I ever tasted and nearly spit out, were the scrambled 'eggs' on Carnival Breeze last Oct. Clearly some kind of packaged mix, they tasted like paste.

Close second was their 'banana cream' pie- which contained neither bananas nor cream..

Lots of other offerings there were disappointing, but those 2 were truly awful.