DreaAST

I am on the Norwegian Sun currently.  We found out that we were not going to Cuba around 8:30 Tuesday night.  We spent the past 2 days in Nassau.  Which is not where we wanted to be.  NCL has issued a letter stating we will get half our cruise fare back and half off a future cruise.  We really wanted to go to Cuba which is why we booked this trip but this does help soften the blow a bit.  

Hello.  We are using Blexie in 2 weeks.  He told me to choose supporting the cuban people on our form we filled out.  The cruise line just told me that I can not chose that and I must choose the education exchange,  groups people to people.  Could anyone tell me what is correct?  I am not sure if the cruise line is just saying this since I booked an outside company.   Thanks for all of the good info in this thread!

You definitely can do this on your own. It was easy to get around. However, we got off the ship and instead of walking to old town we got on the hop on hop off bus just to see the rest of the city. Big mistake in our opinion. There really isn't that much to see besides the Old Town and the traffic was slow. Waste of time and money for us. We ended up taking a cab back to the ship instead of even using the hop on hop off bus again. The cab was a flat $10 rate.

We just got back from a cruise that left from Copenhagen and we passed under a large bridge that the Captain said divides north and south Denmark. It was pretty modern but it was long and cool looking. We left Copenhagen around 4pm and sailed under around midnight.

I just got off of a Baltic Cruise yesterday. We were in St Petersburg on Thursday. We booked a private tour for 2 of us through Alla Tours. The meeting time was 7:30. Royal Caribbean had in the cruise compass to not get off the ship until 8:30 if you did not book through them. We left the boat at 7am anyway. Most people in the line were on cruise ship tours. We waited in line for 45 minutes. We got through easily. They did not say anything about not being on a ship tour. Our guide got there right as we came through immigration. The line to get back through immigration at the end of the day was just as bad. I think we waited about an hour because the computers in some lines went down. All lines were open both times. There were only 2 ships in port that day and I believe we arrived first. I don't know if more ships would be more of an issue with not having a cruise excursion booked or not. The agent did not flinch that our ticket was an independent tour. Great day, besides the immigration process.

Great review!! I always enjoy reading your reviews. Safe travels home!

DreaAST, you will be fine, not to worry.

Thank you!!

We are on Royal Caribbean Serenade of The Seas arriving back on June 3. Our ship docks at 7 and the flight is at 12. I booked the flight through Royal's air program. And i decided on using Royal's transfer to the airport. Does anyone think this will be a problem making the flight? I am crazy anal about time and I'm way nervous about this.

Is it easy to get a taxi at the airport to take you into the city? And then easy to get a taxi from city to Oceankaj? Thanks for answering questions!!

I am also looking at Alla tours. My wife and I are also booked on a May cruise and also from York

May ask what date and line are you going on?

Crazy someone else is from York! We are going on Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas on May 27.

We booked a private tour with Alla for $295 a person (2 of us). I booked it last week for our May cruise and the communication with the company has been excellent.

I have not done this cruise but we took a trip to Iceland the last week of October. The weather is definitely unpredictable. We only had rain 1 day and it was sunny and clear the other 6. It was not even that cold. It was in the 40-50 degree range every day. However, you would randomly need warmer clothes because the wind would come and make it feel cold for periods of time. Layers is the best thing you can wear like everyone else said. We had heavy parkas from Eddie Bauer which were wind and water proof. We only wore them a few times because of the warm weather but you will probably need one. One of the best things that kept us warm were under armor type of shirts. I got them at Target so they were cheaper and made a good base layer. If you plan on visiting the water falls and want to walk behind them during this cruise definitely take waterproof pants to throw on. The most important piece of clothing we had were our waterproof boots. Even if it was not raining, they kept our feet warm and were comfortable. We lucked out weather wise I believe. I hope you get to see the Northern Lights. We were fortunate enough to see them and they were AMAZING!!

Thank you for your input. I have friends that were robbed on a tour elsewhere in the world, not Russia, so I appreciate the info. I've never been to this area so I figured this board would be able to provide feedback. We will probably be proceeding with just the two of us.

Thank you for all of the info!! I have another question. I saw a company has private tours for a reasonable price. We have never done a private tour with only people in our party. There are only 2 of us. Is it a safe choice to do a tour with only 2 people?

I was considering booking a tour with Alla for our 1 day in St Petersburg. The tour is showing that it is 12 hours long and we are in port for 12 hours. It seems like a tour built for cruisers. I am a worrier so I worry about missing the ship's departure. Has anyone had issues with not making it back in time when using a non ship tour while in this port?

I just got back from Iceland a few weeks ago. We stayed at Hotel Odinsve. It was nice and not too expensive. It's located near the church Hallgrimskirkja. It's also close to Laugavegur which is the Main Street with shops and food. Just a piece of info though. If you stay in the town part of Reykjavik the airport shuttles and buses along with buses for tours can't pick up and drop off right at your hotel. So you may have to walk a little bit with your luggage. We had to walk about 4 blocks from our stop to the hotel. If you are a heavy packer this may be a hassle for you since you are there for a short time. I'm a navy packer so this would've been a hassle for a short stay. Since we had a weeks stay it was fine. Some hotels you can be dropped off directly at which I'm not sure how you know which ones are. Reykjavik is great!

Thanks everybody for the great info on here!! I appreciate it! I'm still trying to decide if going to the blue grotto is worth it or not. :confused: I go back and forth on it but I want to see as much possible ourselves(as opposed to a ship excursion) while there.

Excellent review!! Thanks for the google map VirtualRain. I used your other maps a few years ago in Corfu and Santorini(i think it was) and they were extremely helpful. I will be using this one for Capri in June.

Yes!! We loved it and definitely our favorite ship. We liked the dynamic dining options. We loved our junior suite, layout of the ship, seaplex, decor of the ship, just pretty much everything. We had no complaints at all about anything.

My husband got a Tag Heuer on the Quantum. There is a good Tag selection! They also carry Omega, Tissot, Cartier, Longines, Raymond Weil, Hublot, and some other high end luxury watches. No Rolex. Then they also have the fashion watches like Michael Kors. And I saw Citizen, Invicta and Bulova in the middle during the sale.

This isn't much help in choosing but we have done both the Western Med out of Barcelona and Greek Isles from Venice. You can't go wrong with either. I guess it depends if you have somewhere specific you want to see. If you chose Greek Isles make sure it goes to Santorini bc that is a place to see! For the western med our favorite was Rome and the Amalfi Coast which was the Naples port. Good luck choosing, you will be happy with whichever one!

We enjoyed the bionic bar also. Every drink it made for me tasted so good. It did spill my drink once while trying to give it to me but I didn't mind bc I had the alcohol drink package. I also enjoyed the DJ and atmosphere.

Nice review! We were also on this sailing and it was an excellent cruise! Our room was very creaky too and we were in the middle. Wasn't sure If it was just our room but obv not. :)

Thank you for posting the temps while at sea. We are leaving tomorrow when you return and I was wondering what to expect!

I'm on this sailing as well so I'm way excited to read your review when we return! I'm glad someone is doing a love update from this sailing. Safe travels today :)