chechya

On 12/26/2019 at 8:53 AM, FANC6 said:

I have booked this tour for our cruise this July. They have been good to work with so far and will let you know about the tour when we return!😀

Thanks, we actually did book that tour as well, we leave at the end of June and will be in Geiranger on June 30, so it looks like I may have to let you know how the tour is! 

It’s one that goes up the Eagle Road and takes you to the Herdal goat farm.  Price is decent, it seems to get good reviews, and has a “back to the ship” guarantee. Just can’t find anyone who’s actually used this company. 

Has anyone used norwayexcursions.com ? We’ve booked through them for Geiranger and would love to hear about your experience with this tour company. 

Thanks!

1 hour ago, hallasm said:

Yes, only 5 minutes from Dock to train - just make sure you’re docked and not tendered.

 

Full refund if cancelled more than 30 days in advance.

 

Probably 4 to 5 hours - a good option might be rental of bike in Myrdal  - 1h 30m by bike from Myrdal to Flåm, but when 9:45 is sold out, it is both from Flåm to Myrdal and back - most people does buy a return - few does rent a bike in Myrdal. Absolutely nothing to see or do in Myrdal

 

An option might to book the ticket at Vy.no but only available 90 days in advance.

Thanks, hallasm!

Have heard the hike down is amazing but that is a long time and apparently quite the distance. We're young and reasonably fit but don't want to get ourselves into a situation that we regret. We are also looking at just going to Vatnahalsen and hiking from there (since that appears to be what the excursions do) but that doesn't seem to cut off that much distance. 

Thank you for the alternate option - we will keep looking.

16 minutes ago, chechya said:

We'll be in Flam July 1 next year on Celebrity Silhouette. We want to book the Flamsbana train on our own since it's cheaper. We know that the cruise lines often book up the spots in the middle of the day for excursions. Right now it's showing a 9:45 time available to pre book - our itinerary shows us docking  at 9. My questions are: 

1. We should be able to make the 9:45 train, since it's right by the dock, correct? (as long as there are no docking delays, etc).

2. Does anyone know the cancellation policy for the Flamsbana?

Follow up question - 

Does anyone know how long the walk is back down if you take the Flamsbana up and then do the hike back down? Looks like the round trip is sold out already! (Missed it by just a few weeks ago apparently).

We'll be in Flam July 1 next year on Celebrity Silhouette. We want to book the Flamsbana train on our own since it's cheaper. We know that the cruise lines often book up the spots in the middle of the day for excursions. Right now it's showing a 9:45 time available to pre book - our itinerary shows us docking  at 9. My questions are: 

1. We should be able to make the 9:45 train, since it's right by the dock, correct? (as long as there are no docking delays, etc).

2. Does anyone know the cancellation policy for the Flamsbana?

11 minutes ago, dcdisney said:

HAL eliminated Flamm and Geiringer from next summers cruises, apparently due to new environmental regulations.  Have the other cruise lines made these changes as well?

 

We’re booked on Celebrity at the end of June for next year and those two ports are included. 

The route #3 & #4 buses will get you to the start of the Ocean Path. The difference is that the #3 bus starts at the Village Green and only does the eastern half of the Park Loop Road. Teh #4 bus starts at the ANP Visitor Center and does the entire loop road.

 

You can start your trip with the #3 bus, and when you've completed your hike, flag down a #4 bus which you ride to Jordan Pond. At JP, you board an inbound #5 bus which will take you back to the Village Green.

 

SBtS

I know this is an old thread, but we'll be in Bar Harbour / Acadia in about 3 weeks. I've read here (and maybe someplace else) that it's easy to just flag down a bus (as you mentioned) and they'll stop for you if there's space, even if it's not an actual stop. Can you give any more information on that? Or is it really as easy as getting to the road at Otter Point (after the hike/walk) and flagging down a #4 from the road? Thanks!

Reading while working. Guess I missed it.

These threads can be hard to follow sometimes!

We are due into port at 7am, so how early do we need to be up to not miss it? We have port side balconies, but the wife (and my mother) may prefer to go up on deck.

Scroll back to the previous page, posts around the end of Jan, and the question is answered there. Looks like people were saying about 1 hr before arrival.

What are the best places on St. Maarten to purchase rum? Specifically which shop has the most brands available?

Not the most brands, but we highly recommend the Guavaberry Emporium. They have island-made rums which are delicious. Unflavored and flavored. You can sample all you want and purchase a Guavaberry colada.

They used to have shoe shining service as a CC amenity. I searched for a list and didn't see it. When did it go away, or is it still provided with CC and AQ?

We were on Summit in March 2017 in concierge and they provided shoe shine. We just asked room attendant.

We have tendered at Bar Harbor twice, but on Celebrity ships so can't comment on how Royal handles the tender process. But there are two different locations for the tender docks, and we have tendered at both. Both are right downtown, and public bathrooms are in very close proximity. Both locations are convenient.

Thanks! Always good to know where the restrooms will be.

We were on RCI Anthem (so Adventure will have the same process) this past October and also arrived at 7:00am. The first tender was approx 7:30am. You can get tender tickets the day or two before arrival (it will be in your Cruise Compass where to get these) however we found this to be unnecessary at all as no one asked. We had no problem getting off when we wanted to which was approx 8:45am.If you have booked a shore excursion with RCI (and I hope you didn't) there's no need for a tender ticket....

 

Any reason why you need to be off so early ?..It's a small town and much may not be open that early.

 

We booked a tour with Acadia Nat. Park (online) for 9:30am we had an amazing tour with Heather and would recommend this absolutely...and then had plenty of time to have a great lunch at Testa's and walk around the town.

 

The tender drops you off right at the pier in town and that's where you catch it for your return also.

 

Enjoy Bar Harbor

This is extremely helpful, thanks. I'm interested in walking over the sandbar to Bar Island, or at least a little way out, and low tide is at 8am that morning, hence the idea of getting off right away. Not sure if walking out is worth it or not, but I figured I'd at least even see if it was a possibility with timing since I've read you have 1.5 hours on either end of low tide to do it.

We are huge National Parks enthusiasts (lifetime goal to see all of the parks, we've done 14 so far) so we definitely are looking at getting to Acadia and spending most of the day there. Did you book through the NPS or one if its concessioners? Right from the nps Acadia site?

Thanks again for taking the time to write a detailed response. Very helpful!

We are sailing on Royal this July and we've never done a tender port before. Can anyone tell me how early one can expect to be able to tender in to Bar Harbor? Ship gets in at 7. Are the tender boats first come first served or is there a ticketing system? We're on Adventure OTS so not one of Royals huge ships. Any other info re: tendering that's useful to know in advance? Thanks.

An hour before docking would be plenty of time. You can probably get a good shot of Ram Island Ledge Light, which is basically a lighthouse on a tide washed rock in the middle of the bay.

Thanks so much for the info!

It was around sun up, which was around 6am

 

 

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Thanks so much for the info!

This ^^^^ seriously. I got the best shots from the ship! And we went there on our tour. It's on the port side as you sail in. I wasn't expecting it. I'm always up and out on our balcony coming into port!

 

We did the Portland by Land and Sea through Carnival and we enjoyed it. We had plenty of time after for walking along Commercial St.

 

The sea part was a sail on a schooner and it was lovely. We also sailed by the lighthouse. The company is Windjammer Sails. A 2 hour sail is $44 pp. It docked not far from the ship

 

You can purchase on their website portlandschooner.com

 

We would have checked out the Narrow Gauge RR but we did so much walking in Boston and DH had sore feet [emoji849]

 

There is a lovely park near there with great views. And also the Portland Observatory - you can go to the top. Kind of hard to tell how far it is on the map. We passed it on the bus part of the tour but didn't stop.

 

I had my lobster roll at Boone's with some good craft beer- close to the ship. Lots of shops, restaurants and bars along Commercial St

 

We loved Portland!

 

 

 

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We have a port side balcony this summer and are super excited about the idea of seeing the lighthouse from our room. Do you remember by any chance how early it would be? Would an hour before scheduled arrival be enough? Or earlier? Thanks!

Or it could be that we had to leave St John around 330, rather than 4.... I just consulted the VI now dot com site (great site, btw) and it says that the public ferry ride from Charlotte Amalie to St John is approx 35 mins.

Chechya:

HUGELY helpful information! Definitely sticking with the ship tour, rather than doing it myself with the Red Hook Ferry. I know the ferry route is possible - I've done it before - but I don't see any benefit.

 

For others who are comparing:

The "St John On Your Own" tour cost $29.00 per person. I estimate doing it ourselves using the ferry would come to about $34 per person, not including tips for the taxi driver. ($20 each way for the taxi to Red Hook, $14/per person for RT ferry trip.) The ship's version is less costly and easier.

 

My concern was TIME. The ship tour doesn't leave until 10AM. However, based on Chechya's rough timeline, we'll get about the same amount of time on St. John as if we took the ferry. Again, for those like me doing a comparison:

 

Our ship docks at 8AM. We'd need to disembark immediately and grab a taxi for Red Hook. The ride is about 30 minutes, so we'd end up on the 9AM ferry. We'd get to St. John around 9:20AM. We could technically take the 3PM ferry back to St. Thomas, getting us there around 3:30, but that is cutting it a little close to make the 4:30 all-aboard. A problem with the ferry or a traffic delay on St. Thomas could cause us to be late. Therefore, we'd likely opt for the 2PM return ferry. We'd be on St. John approximately 4.5 hours.

 

Using the ship's transportation, we depart St. Thomas at 10AM and arrive in St. John at 10:30. Chechya indicated the return ferry departed St. John around 4PM, getting passengers back to the ship just in time to board at 4:30. That puts us on St. John for about 5 hours. Even if Chechya's recollection of the times is a bit off, it looks like we get roughly the same amount of time on St. John, for less cost and less hassle than doing it ourselves.

 

It's a win-win!!! Thank you Chechya!!!

You're very welcome. Please note, my times were estimates as I didn't keep exact track. We had also considered going it alone with the Red Hook ferry (this was the first cruise ship excursion I've ever taken) but were happy we did this one. There are no "what if's" with traffic (except on St John I guess, but I find that situation to be less likely). You know you have a seat on the shuttle boat, unlike the situation on the public ferry as far as I understand. The pick up and drop off to/from the ship was so close it was ridiculous. We even had about 15-20 mins to look around at the little kiosks at Crown Bay dock before getting back on the ship, so the trip very well could've been less than 30 mins, I honestly don't remember as we had a phone mishap while on St John (they got wet, iPhones ruined and ALL trip photos lost on my husband's phone) so we were a bit preoccupied on the return. However, I think it's even worth it just for the sake of not having to worry about traffic, which ferry to catch (will you get a seat? etc). I'm looking at it again for next March and it looks like the price for us would be $39, but I still think we'd do it for ease since Celebrity docks at the further from town Crown Bay (vs closer to town Havensight).

I hope the excursion goes well for you and that my estimates were fairly close - would love to get an update upon your return, Printingchick!

We ended up doing the "Ultimate Island and National Parks beaches" tour in March of this year from Celebrity. However, we were on the same shuttle boat to St John as the "On Your Own" excursion. I also don't understand why it didn't leave earlier, that said, we did have a decent amount of time on St John, I'd estimate around 5 hrs. I think we had to be back at the shuttle boat at 4 pm or so, with our ship leaving at 5. I think the ride was between islands was approx 30 mins. The location of where you get on the shuttle boat was EXTREMELY close to the ship, like literally a 2 minute walk tops. It was very convenient. We are planning on going back to St John next March and will likely do the "On Your Own" excursion next time.

In the spring/summer months does Celebrity have any shorter cruises than 7 nights?

I don't know if it's unusual or not, but we're on a 5 nighter in the Eastern Carribean on Mar 27 of this year.

we are on Celebrity out of the Pan American pier in March. We've rented a car for the day (we arrive at 5 am and the ship leaves at 8pm). We are interested in checking in, dropping off bags, and having lunch on ship as soon as possible at 12noon, but then would like to continue to see the city afterwards. We're wondering I don't there is short term parking at the pier where we can leave the car for an hour or two. Can't seem to find anything online about this.