purplekim
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Posts posted by purplekim
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If it's a case of the best experience - New Zealand Kiakora - we swam with over 300 spinner dolphins in the wild who put on a magnificent show- tails spins; jumps diving the full works. And it was cheap for the amount of time you spent in the water with them.
Re opinions - yes everyone is allowed to have them, but being informed vs not being informed. I would definitely prefer to make the choice be informed.
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Hi thanks for the reply, we had. A sickness in the family and got super busy. We're in the uk but as we don't like too much heat the carribean isn't too enticing. We just came up with South America but have delayed that so we have more time next year which would be better given the expense of flying out. I think it's going to a med cruise.
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I don't think it's a matter of just cruelty, they are free swimming intelligent mammals and to keep them that way for our experiences and enjoyment is awful. Yes there maybe some good operators out there but by going you encourage others not so good to think £££ signs and join in. There are some wonderful places in the world better value and gives the Dolphins freedom such as New Zealand - perhaps think of taking your son when he's a little older and able to appreciate what it means to be able to swim with them specially in the wild. Taking them young breeds it's what my mother etc... did mentality and so the cycle continues.
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Hi we are thinking of doing a Christmas cruise to South America - NCL or Celebrity, NCL has better ports so that appeals to us, however just working a budget.
Has anyone done South America and found a way to bring costs down. We'd be traveling from the UK so there's flights as well.
Would it make a difference booking via a USA agent?
How expensive are the shore excursions, we usually book ourselves?
Thank you in advance.
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I am lucky to be a part of this community where people are so generous and helpful. Thank you for taking the time and effort to reply.
From reading everyone's posts it seems the Caribbean is the way forward, we may add a little of the USA to it to. But will definitely have to pick carefully, I don't want lots of kids on the cruise.
[emoji3]
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Hi all
We've decided not to be home for christmas this year and go cruising!!
I've looked and it seems that most cruises are around the Caribbean or the med.
We like weather that not to hot, and really into beaches. Can anyone recommend somewhere not too hot?
Also as we have never down a Christmas cruise, if anyone can shed some light on what Christmas cruises are like it would be good. We both like the Christmas and do the full works every year Including a full Christmas Roast dinner, do they do that?
Thank you for reading this.
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Hi
We are on the norwegian pearl, it's our first ncl cruise. Do you have to book for the shows, we have only done one cruise previously and we didn't book, just turned up early.
Any help on this would be good
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Rum runners
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Hi
We are looking to cruise the inside passage. Can anyone recommend cruise lines or routes where you will have the best chance of seeing whales, bears etc.
I know there are some expedition ships.0, but they are too pricey for us.
We are also considering a stop in Vancover Island, if anyone can help with that it would be very helpful.
Thank you
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We too like fresh milk and were disappointed that there was no whole milk on the cruise. It was semi skimmed or skimmed only. Apparently the oriana doesn't carry whole milk. We bought our own and kept it in the fridge.
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I would just go early - worst would be you have to wait. Take some books have a coffee and chill out when you get there.
Ignore the trainers comment. Some people are just plain rude and want to bring others down. You'll get those on the cruise, best to steer clear of those.
We were excited, first cruise and all so we went early, and we had a good time doing that.
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We arrived at 10.45, the car parking was booked through P&O so from the drop off point just outside the terminal. The bags were taken off there and we walked straight in. The bit that took a few mins longer was checking the car before the attendant drove off with it. We did take our time stopping to go to the loo, pick up the free magazines etc and a smoke, toilets so when we eventually got in it was 11ish. We waited for 30 mins or so before they started to call for check in.
The earliest that boarding begins is 11.30 for oriana which is a smaller ship, azura is larger so they may start earlier.
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Of course you can, we did. You get a card according to what time you get there. Check opens around 11.30 am, we were there around 11'ish. There were a quite a number of people there already. They called the green card first that day.
Have wonderful cruise.
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We just returned from Norway, cruised with P and O. We chose P and O because they visited the ports we wanted to see. I would advise doing Norway to do some through research on what you want to see, how long it will take and the transport mode you will use before you book.
The two things we wanted to do Gerainger, Pulpit Rock and the Atlantic Road we could not do due to an excursion that was removed and not having enough port time - we needed an extra half an hour at least to make sure we made it before the ship left to do the Atlantic Road.
We also went up to the Leknes, Loften Islands - not much to do there (walking around Leknes town centre - one high street, took 10 mins at most) and there was no reliable mode of local transport to go somewhere for the time we had. Most people not booked on the ships excursions returned to the ship for lunch.
I think that in future I would be making sure that time in port was suitable to do something what we wanted. That's where the price difference will come in.
We did look at the hertigetan but felt that we wanted a real cruise experience rather than a local ferry/cruise.
Also check that the towns you visit are open, some close down and open for June. I know when we looked some of out ports most things were closed until June hence we booked July.
We did find a few local transport modes (a tram, a bus and a local river bus) to reduce the cost of excursions which were being offered by the ship which weren't always good value.
Also in considering price, remember the extras that will add up, drinks, excursions, and any other on board extras. With P and O you can take drinks with you to have in your cabin. 😀
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Thank you, I feel a lot safer. It's lovely to have this forum and people with real experience. Sometimes my question seems silly to me but I get very good answers putting it all into perspective.
I'll be posting a review up from our trip to Norway.
Thank you everyone
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Hi
Can anyone tell me if it is possible to rent an automatic car in leknes, I can only drive automatic. What sort of price are we looking at? Also if you have booked a car there with whom did you book and availability at short notice.
Thank you
K
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Hi
I just wondered how safe is your luggage once you have checked in. I understand it will be left outside your cabin, does that that not mean that anyone can walk off with it?
Also on a cruise, how safe are you?
I obviously would be careful, but I just wondered do you need to be extra vigilant given that your cabin may be left open during cleaning. Also wondering around the ship during the late or early morning hours, I am an extremely early riser and late sleeper, i would love to go for a morning walk or late night wonder around.
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Hi
Can anyone tell me if the luggage labels that you are requested to print off actually do the job. The ones we got with the booking have a different cabin numbers.
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Thank you all very much the information. I just found the price listing (doh) for the beers etc, and decided to take on board just the wine.
I'll put into the cabin bag - which should be fine.
😊
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Hi just out of curiosity, where are going?
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Thank you for all the information its helped reassure me, given the number of trips you have all done and lived, it's all good.
I won't be taking extra water on board now.
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I am interested to know did you put your wine in checked baggage?
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Hi all
Our first cruise, and I read somewhere that the water on the ship is re filtered and reused, the dirty black water is filtered to be drinkable. To counter this figured I would take a couple of bobble filter bottles, is this going to be sufficient or do I need to budget in bottle water costs too.
I don't want to get sick and drink a lot of water.
Any help on this would be appreciated.
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Dolphin encounters
in Ask a Cruise Question
Posted
If you ever get the opportunity I would really go and swim in KaiKoura. It was amazing. Also the earlier post talks if the cruelty - this is documented in 2 films - The Cove and Black Fish. The first is about the Dolphins and the second about killer whale. We met a conservationist in Alaska who lived just near the bay where the first ever killer whale was caught. He said he could still remember the cries coming from the whale. Blackfish is available free in BBC Iplayer. I visited Seaworld as a naive 15 year old, I have never been back and discourage people from visiting. You may only pay £100 but that multiple by the thousands that visit every day make it such a lucrative business. It's easy money for them.
I hope you get to see and swim with the Dolphins. My bucket list includes swimming with killer whales, but first need to learn to swim properly. I did the dolphin swim petrified of drowning as I'm not a even an average swimmer, and still loved it.