Nearly Live from Oosterdam Med Empires June 13th - 25th.

[kazu]

13 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Today's Rates of Exchange at the Front Desk.

(no comment!)

 

 

I am really having trouble getting the images to show correctly.

Anyone have any tips?

are you using an Iphone or Ipad for the pics, Colin?

 

If you are, I can help. 

[VMax1700]

Today's bread pudding

testing 2.9mb file

 

[puppycanducruise]

That bread pudding looks great.

Enjoy!

[VMax1700]

Just now, kazu said:

are you using an Iphone or Ipad for the pics, Colin?

 

If you are, I can help. 

Jacqui, I never got into Apple products, so it is an Android phone (Samsung) and a Dell W11 PC

[VMax1700]

Todays Where and When (v1)

 

[VMax1700]

Today's W&W v2

6.6mb

 

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

No, we took a private transfer, who collected us at our Mestre hotel.

Price for the two of us was €245.  It was a Mercedes van with room for more pax or baggage.

We are doing the same a mini van 4 the four of us $433 total from Venice city  to the port. We will be at the ship by 11:00 the time the first X shuttles are scheduled to leave Venice. We hope to avoid the crowds and be onboard for lunch by noon.

[VMax1700]

11 hours ago, cat shepard said:

Colin, I always encounter this problem when I take a picture I snapped and resize it from “actual”, usually to “small”. Though I have encountered it with “medium”, too. 
 

if you have been resizing pics, try posting the actual size. It might be HUGE , but…. 😎

Hi, 

I tried your suggestion and indeed the problem appears to be resizing.

I have submitted a couple of posts with up to 7 mb files, so maybe I will just post the original images and see what happens.

Thanks!

[VMax1700]

1 minute ago, terrydtx said:

We are doing the same a mini van 4 the four of us $433 total from Venice city  to the port. We will be at the ship by 11:00 the time the first X shuttles are scheduled to leave Venice. We hope to avoid the crowds and be onboard for lunch by noon.

I understood that the first shuttles left VCE airport and Tronchetto at 9am and the second wave departed at 11am? Maybe that was only for this cruise.

(you are shuttling on X again 😂 🤫)

[kazu]

5 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Jacqui, I never got into Apple products, so it is an Android phone (Samsung) and a Dell W11 PC

 

Ok - I’m not a genius on those but if you click on your pic to  you get the option to edit?  - something like this? (Circled in yellow).  

 

 

If you do and you click edit - somewhere you should get an option to turn the pic around - on my IPad it’s here: (circled in yellow)

 

 

Once you click it you will get the option to turn your pic around:

 

 

Just click until you get the pic right side up and done.  And…

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

6 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Today's W&W v2

6.6mb

 

 

Good for you!  Ignore my post - sorry about that.

 

Congrats 👏 👏 🏆 

[VMax1700]

Important info

Well I think it is relevant!

Previously when we purchased the internet package we have always been able to use wifi calling on our phones.

This cruise it seems that wifi calling is disabled.  Maybe they are blocking the port that wifi calling uses?

Anyway WHATSAPP calling works ok.

just FYI for those travelling now and in future.

[VMax1700]

@Kobra_Kommandor

I will try to reply in detail later, but I had to physically produce our EU Covid certificates and show the email from the test Lab and open the pdf so they could read my name and date of test and result of test.

These were not HAL employees they were Port Health employees in a different uniform to others. Maybe employed or contracted by HAL, but she was not taking any sheeet from me!

[Sharon in AZ]

12 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

To Internet from Surf package to Premium page was shown on Navigator as $50 for 12 days.  I have stayed with the surf pack and see how it behaves,

We had some onboard credit to use so upgraded to Premium for the same price you quoted. It worked really good for our itinerary. In the past they discounted it if you purchase later during the cruise. 

 

12 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

@Sharon in AZ

Thank you!  Delivered this afternoon by our room steward.

Grazie mille.

 

 

I just cannot get the images to behave 😢

You are very welcome!  Enjoy!

 

[terrydtx]

40 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

I understood that the first shuttles left VCE airport and Tronchetto at 9am and the second wave departed at 11am? Maybe that was only for this cruise.

(you are shuttling on X again 😂 🤫)

It has all been very confusing by HAL. For our Aug 21 cruise when HAL first announced they would provide shuttles the pick up times were 11:00 and 1:00 at both locations, we had no intensions of taking a shuttle with 40 strangers so we opted out and booked our private transport. I guess if any changes on times were made we may not have been notified since we  opted out.

[johnnyswitzerland]

2 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

There is no tour listed to Knossos.

I have been a couple of times but always from Heraklion.

If I get the chance I will check if there is anyone at the port gate in Souda offering a tour to Knossos and post again.

Thanks so much, @VMax1700!  Appreciate the info.

[VMax1700]

From last night:

departing Trieste and looking back to the road beside the cruise terminal:

 

Capt. van Eerten gave 3 sharp blasts to the ship's whistle at 6.55pm and shortly afterwards we started gliding slowly towards Greece and Turkey.

[jimbri]

Have a great cruise!

[VMax1700]

A couple of notes from over the last few days.

In Venice there is a Porter Service to carry luggage to/from Hotel/Train Station/Taxi.  I don't know how much they were charging, but it did seem quite popular for those having more than a couple of bags.  These were outside the train station but I am sure a hotel would call one for your return journey.  They were also around the bus station in Pza Roma.

 

 

Also, as we arrived into Trieste (along the coast road - I think the west side) I noticed that the train station was quite close (walking distance) to the NH Hotel Trieste.  The hotel was also within walking distance of the terminal where the ship was docked.  Of course, it may be in a different dock another time.

[Nodakboiler]

Was your Trieste checkin at the terminal right across from the Savoia Excelsior hotel? Last fall we were bussed to a different terminal to checkin  and also to pick up luggage afterward. We cruise again this fall and wonder if it will be the same. Thanks for your help!

[terrydtx]

42 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

A couple of notes from over the last few days.

In Venice there is a Porter Service to carry luggage to/from Hotel/Train Station/Taxi.  I don't know how much they were charging, but it did seem quite popular for those having more than a couple of bags.  These were outside the train station but I am sure a hotel would call one for your return journey.  They were also around the bus station in Pza Roma.

 

 

Also, as we arrived into Trieste (along the coast road - I think the west side) I noticed that the train station was quite close (walking distance) to the NH Hotel Trieste.  The hotel was also within walking distance of the terminal where the ship was docked.  Of course, it may be in a different dock another time.

Good to know, we arrive in Venice by train from Florence 3 days before our Oosterdam cruise.

[Dunmore2]

I’m really enjoying your informative posts. Thank you.

 

…when you log onto your Navigator, can you see meal offerings for the future, or only for the present day?

[VMax1700]

59 minutes ago, Nodakboiler said:

Was your Trieste checkin at the terminal right across from the Savoia Excelsior hotel? Last fall we were bussed to a different terminal to checkin  and also to pick up luggage afterward. We cruise again this fall and wonder if it will be the same. Thanks for your help!

Yes, Molo Bersaglieri, straight opposite Savoia Excelsior.

Last fall we checked in at Venice Terminal and we bussed to this same terminal, but at the end of our cruise we debarked in the industrial port and were bussed to another terminal to collect baggage.  I think last year had no set pattern as HAL left it so late (we were notified the night before boarding) to inform pax and there were problems with Trieste port not being prepared for the demand on cruise ship docking.

[VMax1700]

24 minutes ago, Dunmore2 said:

I’m really enjoying your informative posts. Thank you.

 

…when you log onto your Navigator, can you see meal offerings for the future, or only for the present day?

only the present day.

For the itinerary there is a drop down menu for each day, but for the MDR and Lido only the current day is shown.  Also the stateroom TV only shows the menu for the current day.

[terrydtx]

2 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

only the present day.

For the itinerary there is a drop down menu for each day, but for the MDR and Lido only the current day is shown.  Also the stateroom TV only shows the menu for the current day.

That makes it very difficult to choose what nights to pass on the MDR and book a specialty restaurant.