rurn0321

Looking for recommendations for a hotel pre cruise.  We will be there for just one night and as we have been to Athens several times on cruises we don't need any excursions.  Close to the port is preferable.  Also the best way to get from the airport to the hotel, taxi, car service etc.  We used Rome Cabs in Rome and prefer something like that. Thanks.

For anyone that has cruised to Dubrovnik lately, does HAL have shuttle buses to the old town?  I know they did years ago but not sure about now.

Pickle ball is apparently now available on the Beyond. For anyone who has been do they have equipment available to use?  Thanks. 

Love reading your review as we are on the same cruise August 25th.   Looking forward to it even more now.

We did their 2 day comfort tour and loved it. We saw pretty much everything over the two days including a canal boat ride and a subway ride. There is so much to see in this beautiful city it can get overwhelming but well worth it. Pace was fine, guide was excellent and we would definitely use them again.

Heading to Iceland next year and we are looking for suggestions for Isafjordur and Grundarfjordur. Thanks.

There are two tours (through Costco) that are whale watching and if conditions are good, you get to swim with the whales. One tour in Papeete and one in Morea. Has anyone taken one of these tours? What was your experience? Does anyone have an opinion which of these tours would be preferred?

Went on an excursion with Dr. Michael Poole out of Moorea several years ago. It was great and we got into the water with 2 whales. They were right below us.

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5) If you want to see all my pictures of the Crown (from February 2016), click on the link below ...

https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-tf3b4X

I checked out the photos as we will be on her in October. Love the label "Sandy eggo":D

Thanks. Had a look and it only seems to allow a min 3 night stay for when I'm looking. Ah well back to the drawing board :'):'):'):-)

We are only staying for 2 nights but I booked with hotels.com so that may make a difference.

Hello

 

I've seen a few threads on this, but can't actually find the answer to my question. I know the port shuttle runs 'on demand' depending on cruise ships in.. Does anyone know what time of the morning they would tend to start running? I'm going in October on a Sunday. Do you have to pre-book ticket online or can you buy on the bus?

 

Also anyone know any good /reasonably costed hotels fairly near the shuttle pick up point?

 

I'm travelling solo, so would prefer to use the shuttle if possible rather than paying for a taxi to keep the costs down, but not if I'm going to have to lug my suitcases too far ;-)

 

Thanks

We are staying at the Andante Hotel in Oct which is close to the port. It gets good reviews and seems reasonable.

What about the 3 for Free sale?

So glad to read all the comments. We are using them for a city tour and the Montserrat/Cava tour in the fall.

You can order (12) 500ml water for 6.90. Comes out to $0.58/bottle. Delivered to your state room so no carrying heavy water bottles in your hand carry. Go to onboard reservations and beverage packages.

 

I usually pack 6 packs of soda(as many as you want) in a cardboard box and tag it as baggage also delivered to the stateroom with luggage.

I have looked at all of my future sailings and no water is available to buy ahead of time. Have they changed this?

We are cruising out of Brooklyn next month and are wondering about the parking. Are there plenty of spaces? What time would be good to arrive? We're thinking between those departing and the lot filling back up. We are driving from CT. Thanks.

We will be on the Sea Princess in Mar/Apr next year with a stop in Freemantle/Perth from 8am-11pm. We would like to get to Rottnest Island for part of the day. Do you have to book the ferry from Shed B ahead of time and how far in advance? Can you walk from the ship to Shed B? Any suggestions for not to miss places on the island. Thanks.

I'm loving this review as we are doing this same cruise in January 2019. Have been to Hawaii several times on land vacations but this will be the first time cruising there. Love all your suggestions as we will also spend some time in San Francisco pre cruise.

Overseas visitors should bone up on the following thread for information and advice before visiting Australia.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/showthread.php?t=2362723

I've read parts of this before, especially about the drop bears. Ha Ha. Love the Australian sense of humor. Although I think it's Australia that has the top 10 deadliest animals! Still trying to figure out some of your sayings that are so different from the US. Should make for a interesting trip. I'll go back over the above link when we get closer. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions.

I've been to all of these ports except Albany, but on land vacations and not as part of a cruise. So, I don't know if the following are available as ships excursions or private tours, but these are the things I'd want do if I had a day in port:

 

Fremantle--I'd want to take the ferry to Rottnest Island and rent bikes to ride around and see great scenery and quokkas. But I doubt that's available, so my second choice would be a visit to and tour of Fremantle Gaol. The penal institutions are a major aspect of Australia's history and Fremantle Gaol is an excellent example. (It's also an UNESCO World Heritage Site.)

Why would this be not available. If we dock at 8am is it possible to get the 9:30 ferry? How far is the ferry pick up from where the cruise ship docks.

Looking for some suggestions for not to miss excursions/tours in Adelaide, Albany, Darwin and Freemantle for next March/April cruise. Either ship or private tours. We are not so much museum people as we love to be outside. TIA.

When we did the tour also with ALLA we did go down to the station and also rode the subway. Very impressive and quite beautiful. Really a shame this has happened.

When do you sail? We are set to sail October 14

We are on October 7th.

We also used ALLA tours in St Petersburg and they were great! Definitely worth it. All tour companies will take care of your visa that you need. The rest of the ports, Oslo, Aarthus, Talinn, & Helsinki we di on our own. We did do the ships tours to Berlin and Stockholm due to time restraints. It's a great trip. Enjoy!

We are also doing a New England/Canada in Oct and we chose early traditional. We have done Anytime Dining on several other cruises without a problem but on our last cruise in January on the Ruby it was awful. Waiting 45 minutes just to get a beeper and then more waiting. Tried for reservations without luck. Only available after 7:30 and I can't eat that late. Thought we'd try traditional for a change. We'll see if we like it.

We also just got off the Ruby today and had a definite problem with the anytime dining. We have cruised with Princess several times before and have never had a problem, always made reservations for the time we needed and maybe had a 5-10 minute wait. This time on the Ruby the anytime dining was horrible. You could not make reservations earlier than 7:30 and we tried several times by calling at 8am. We tried switching to traditional dining and talked to the head waiter but were unable to. The lines were very long. Several times 45 minutes just to get a beeper and then another 45 min to get seated. We found we had to be in line by 4:30 to get seated at a reasonable time which we were not happy about. The poor girl at the door was verbally abused by another passenger behind us as he was so disgusted with the long lines every night. I felt bad for her as it wasn't her fault but the system is definitely flawed. I am not sure why there is a problem with this on this particular ship although someone had suggested it was due to the Club Class taking up space and their section being basically empty. I will be doing tradtional dining from now on to avoid this. The quality of the food was okay but I agree that in the Horizon Court they didn't vary the selections very often. Other than that the cruise was great even with the cloudy cool weather.