Kala89

We have been to Ponta Delgada twice on trans-Atlantic voyages.  The first time we used Amazing Tours for an excellent tour.  The second time, we booked 4 vans with Green Visions Tours.  Both companies provided excellent tours with good guides and were easy to communicate with.

When there are no dancers on the dance floor, it could mean that there are no dancers on board.  More likely, the music being played is not suitable for dancing.  On our most recent HAL cruise, we went to the Ocean Bar every evening hoping to do a bit of dancing.  We were lucky to get 1 or 2 dances per night as the rest of the music was more jazz.  The cruise was around South America so they could have played rumba, cha cha, samba, tango or any of the other Latin dances but they did not.  We were very disappointed and will likely change cruise lines after being loyal to HAL for many years.

We would like to echo what "Phoenix Cruiser" has said above. We met so many people because of the very active Roll Call and made friends because we were so often in the same groups with others.  It greatly enhanced the trip.  Thanks a million Alex for all your wonderful work in facilitating the spreadsheet and the tendering process.  Alex was wonderful about sharing details of how to copy the spreadsheet, add names, etc.  It was such a pleasure to be part of this cruise.  Happy travels everyone!

I arranged our tour with Jaime many months before our cruise and posted it on our Roll Call.  Anyone who wanted to join had to contact Jaime directly and ask to join the tour.  I asked for the group to be kept small so there were only 10 of us. Payment was made on-line through Jaime so I did not have to collect money from anyone.  The tour took most of the day (about 8 hours, I recall).  It was a wonderful day with great views of the volcano.  I suggest you contact Jaime at Patagonia Shorex to see if he has any tours available on the day you are in port.  He is very good at responding quickly to emails.

We visited here in 2013. We had organized a tour with Jaime Liebrecht of Patagonia Shorex. We had an excellent guide and a nice, air-conditioned van. The tour consisted of a drive through the countryside to see the German influence on the architecture. We then drove to the Osorno Volcano and took the chairlift to the top. It was not at all busy there and the views were wonderful. We could see Lake Llanquihue. Following this, we went to the Petrohue Falls where we were able to walk around a bit on well-groomed paths. Volcano viewing was excellent on the day that we were there. On the way back to the ship, we drove through Puerto Varas (the city of roses). It was a wonderful day and everything went smoothly. We will be going back to South America next year and have several more tours booked with Jaime.

We totally agree. We used to love to dance in the evenings on our cruises but find that HAL has really cut down on the opportunities to do so. When we were on the Koningsdam, we found the B.B. King's music too loud and difficult to dance to. We liked to dance to the "canned" music between sets! We took a Princess cruise for the first time and had a wonderful time dancing to live music every night in the Wheelhouse Bar. Sure miss the old days of dancing in the Ocean Bar and might have to switch cruise lines as dancing is a big part of our enjoyment in the evenings.

We just returned from a visit to Australia. We took the Skybus from the Melbourne airport to near our hotel. The Skybus stop was less than a city block from our hotel, The Quest Docklands. We really enjoyed this hotel as we had almost a small apartment with living room, kitchen, separate bedroom and bathroom with washer & dryer (they supplied the laundry soap). We found the rates at this hotel to be less than other hotels in the CBD. It was also very close to tram stops for the free trams around the CBD. There were several good restaurants close by, especially the Ginger Leaf Thai Restaurant across the street.

We just returned from a circumnavigation of NZ with Princess. Our ship was 6 hours late docking in Sydney at the end of the cruise because we had to alter our course to avoid a major storm. Many passengers were extremely inconvenienced and upset by the large fees they had to pay to change their flights. We will never again book an outgoing flight until the evening on the day of disembarkation.

I'm wondering whether any of the ocean view cabins on Lower Promenade deck were converted to lanais? We love our lanai cabins and heard that the Zaandam might be getting them. We are booked to sail on Zaandam in January.

Thanks very much for that detailed response, papasprep! I had found Hotel Terra Mia on Tripadvisor but it had only 6 reviews so I was a bit hesitant. We will definitely keep it in mind.

We are on a South America cruise next winter and are also looking for a place to stay in San Antonio. We like to stay in the city of embarkation so we don't have to worry about weather, transportation strikes, etc. I'll be watching to see if more suggestions are forthcoming on this post! There's not many recommended hotels in San Antonio and the ratings are poor. Because the use of the port of San Antonio is a recent development, we are hoping some of this year's travelers will do reviews of their accommodations.

I am really looking forward to reading your account. We are booked on this cruise next January. I used your 2011 South America blog as a guide to booking our shore excursions when we went around the Horn a few years ago and am looking forward to doing the same this time. Thanks so much!

Thanks for the great information, Shawnino. We will check out the places you recommended. Thanks also to Isabella8 - we will keep in touch.

We are on a South America/Antarctica cruise next January (2019) and are thinking of spending a few days in the Atacama Desert before the cruise begins. For anyone who has been to San Pedro before, do you have recommendations for places to stay, highlights to see, and tour operators? Thanks for any assistance you can give us.

I have been trying for over a week to start this Roll Call but it does not appear with the other Roll Calls for March 2018. I have messaged Cruise Critic on their FB page for help. Any suggestions would be welcome:D

This will be our first cruise on Princess. We have numerous other cruises with Holland America Line. We have never been to New Zealand and will be doing a 2-week land-tour of Australia before embarking on this cruise. We are retired and live in Atlantic Canada. Looking forward to sharing shore excursions with other passengers.

We just finished a 28 day TA from Fort Lauderdale to the Mediterranean on a Holland America Line cruise. We were surprised how warm it was in April and how smooth the sailing was. We were out on our veranda quite a bit, usually just in our shirt sleeves. As we got closer to Europe (Azores and Spain), it cooled off and we needed light jackets.