pandataylor

In 2012 we did CMV up the Amazon and then FO for Canada, and in 2014 world Cruise on Black Watch.

As a knowledge hound I was more than disappointed with the information provided by FO which I thought would be better than CMV. However CMV staff seem much brighter and I was told they have far more autonomy than FO staff.

As examples the information on Patagonia was non-existent, going through the Suez Canal elicited a shoddy piece of double-sided A4 with the information centred on the page. Shambolic. Quiz questions came replete with wrong answers and apparently borrowed by staff and ported ship to ship which gives quite an advantage to frequent cruisers!!!

In any event the cruise was great but information dire. Talks were Okish.

Having been on the Canadian trip,[and having had to buy our own table-tennis balls in Cobh] we were fully prepared and had uploaded Wikipedia to one of two laptops , and printed off plenty of detailed information for ports and countries to be visited. Also free navigational maps with certain countries like Brazil and Australia.

The major error we made was not including a printer in our baggage as relying on reception to print out lyrics for the singers etc etc was tedious.

This is sounding more and more like a good option. We are scheduled to get into port at 8am so maybe we'll check out the flight options first thing. It's probably a little more money than we'd like to spend but what the heck! Maybe I'll never get this chance again!

I believe it was $50 Canadian and fgiven it included a ride in a world-famous aircraft the De Havilland Beaver, roughly as old as me, and it was a float-plane ...... Lots of good reasons to go : )

The site seems to be angling for bookings which may be a good way to go - or not depending on the weather. We strolled off the ship and there they were taking bookings for the sightseeing flight around the fiord so immediastely booked it, went and hired a car for 24 hours, and then went back for our flight. We were fortunate as in the afternoon the flights ceased as the bay had become too choppy.

Given the vastness of Canada it was well worth getting up high to see the countryside and houses and farms but essentially how the scenery kept repeating itself into the far distance. I think that for many folks the share size of the wilderness is quite a shock particularly for Europeans.

The car was nice and cheap and we had a small drive in the afternoon south to a local park with a good visitor centre and the following long day we drove down to the mouth of the fiord and back up the other side. A long journey if you stop off for meals and views but well worth it.

Given cruise ships seem to come in and leave at night you get much more shore time than virtually anywhere else.

I am concerned that we will lose the smaller cruise ships and getting around Cape Horn has been an aim of mine for decades so we decided to do it now. Balmoral we fancy for Jan 2015 before we hang up our travel boots [boats].

:)

We tried the Balmoral for size in 2012 to Canada. Nice ship perhaps bigger than I like. Great crew, great food. And a very nice itinerary for you!

We have done our visa request on-line and printed the forms. We had them returned on the basis we were applying too early. I recommend you advise you are traveling by ship in a letter with the application as they assume you are arriving by plane.

Following our e-mail explaining the situation we have just re-sent the applications off but hopefully all will be in order by the 14th Jan.

And check the Fred advice on where you claim to be visiting in India as one area at least, the Andamans, is dealt with separately

If you are lucky you can be transported into the air in a 1950's DeHaviland Beaver floatplane. A high point in our trip last month : )