Dobby36

On 8/29/2023 at 3:22 PM, cccole said:

Try puertosanantoniotours.com and saitourschile.cl.  We are using both of them for our pre cruise adventures.   Cherie 

 
we used puertosanantoniotours.com and have nothing but great things to say.  Friendly staff, easy to book, comfortable van. We did a ship to hotel transfer with them ending in Santiago, that featured a finery, lunch and Valparaiso stops. Lovely. 

17 hours ago, voyager1964 said:

Thanks for your thoughts!

A follow-up question: if we compare the Eurodam 11-days cruise in March with the same cruise but in February, how many more children should we expect in March? Like <100, 100-200 or still 200+?

I would doubt in either March or Feb the total number of kids will exceed 100.  There is a chance of that on summer holiday, around Christmas, in short weeklong Mexico/Caribbean voyages.  But I’d seriously doubt there would be fun dress of kids on a 11-day voyage then.  

3 hours ago, WriterOnDeck said:

In the Pinnacle Grill on the Zuiderdam -- in the lobster mac.

+1 for this suggestion.  It was my fav.  I did enjoy the lobster featured in dishes in Tamarind too, but it isn’t a full lobster or lobster tail just some meat incorporated into their dishes, IIRC. Still lovely!

1 hour ago, aledomom said:

I had never really looked into the benefit of owning CCL stock.  I can't find how far in advance do I need to purchase?  Was thinking I might see if the stock will go down a little?  We don't sail until June 2024.  TIA!

the form says you need to submit no later than 4 weeks prior to sailing date.  you should be able to produce an account holding statement the same day or next day after you purchase, so a month out would be my suggestion for the latest to wait.  Although I think the first time I did one I was only maybe 3 weeks out and it still applied, so your mileage may vary.  
 

THere’s on the Oceania forum too, Vista I believe. They are skipping Boston and Bar Harbor and went directly to NYC to port.

4 hours ago, Langoustine said:

If you bought it at the right time, yes; mine is UP nearly 77% since my purchase.

+1 

i got mine in 2022 and it’s almost doubled in price since then.  But more importantly (to me) I’ve already gotten about as much OBC from it as my entire initial investment   

2 hours ago, oceanbill457 said:

How do you get the onboard credit? It doesn't come up in the search engine.

you can email or fax in the proof they require. the info they need (sail date, booking number etc) are on the link below, along with the proof requirements and the email/fax # 

if you do it wrong or miss something they will kindly reply and tell you what they need you to display more clearly.  As long as it’s not ahead of their annual re-approval timeframes (currently into summer 2024) or less than a few weeks before sail date, you should have success.  Bon voyage! 
 

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/shareholder-information/shareholder-benefit

@Judy795 the destination and the length should produce a very different crowd than the shorter Alaska experience you had at first.  That’s been my experience, at least. I think HAL excels at the longer voyages to more unique locales.  Interms of ship, there are many who have qualms but Rotterdam is their newest and flagship, if you ask HAL. Hope you enjoy!

On my cruise earlier this month, I got an unexpected delivery to our room of chocolates and truffles, with a note of thanks for my casino play. I’ve gotten lots of casino offers in the past, but never chocolates and stuff. 
 

i happened to see the host and said a quick thanks, and something about “what did I do to get that?!” (I’m not usually a schmoozer or try to befriend the casino staff) and he said any champagne or chocolates etc are based on a top tier of percentage by folks, tabulated by day. The casino seemed fairly full but perhaps there were just few high rollers on the New England voyage? We got a “come back and play” offer slipped under the door, but just for $250 free play plus free drinks in casino, not even a free room.  Which is again, less than I’ve gotten before. 
 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Mark my experience down as another for “random”. I got a nice list about a month ago, none of which I could take. Before that one it had been the better part of a year.  But in 2021 I think a few appeared much quicker succession. 
 

(I’m talking about the ones “offers” that arrive with a link to a PDF for specific sailings that are either free or almost free. The generic emails with reminders that on their main site I can see casino “fares” occur regularly every few months)

@Topdog52 we didn’t do any ourselves, just wandered around. But there were info about them /sold at the visitors center.  

I can tell you they did go out for that cruise, because I was on Zuiderdam too.  Mine went to my usual email and both persons in cabin got one.  Sorry you can’t seem to get it, I also love recognizing folks in those!

Auberge Du Tresor And Hotel Manoir Morgan are both on a town square in old town, in the shadow of the picturesque Chateau Frontenac. stayed at Manoir Morgan last week, and it’s clean and unique, with friendly staff who held our luggage.  
 

They are close to what we found to be a central meeting point for many tours, as there is a visitors center on the ground floor of the same building, which sells tours, exchanges money, and offers information. Very convenient to the funicular and “boardwalk” or whatever that’s called.

here’s a pic of our room (excuse the messy bed!) and the view out our window of the town square:

 Also nearby are lots of shops and restaurants and charming old town pedestrian alleys. 
 

We had two days, (first and second) in port last week at Quebec City on the zuiderdam to begin a 7day to Boston. We boarded among the first folks the AM of day one and we’re out exploring the city again in short order.  The pier and terminal are organized well and have tons of signage.  You can exit the pier complex to the south or to the west(ish) depending on where you are heading, if going by foot. For us, they also had a shuttle to the gates which seemed pretty standard, but it’s a 5 min walk and they don’t mind if you do so. 
 

there was also Ubers coming and going, and a taxi line which we used once and coming and going weren’t a problem.  THe security for us remained done at the terminal, instead of on the ship we had to hop in line with folks who still had luggage although it wasn’t as issue. We just needed our keycard.  No one seeemd to bat an eye.
 

on the way in one time I WAS chased down by security and they demanded to know my name. LOL but it was just because some other bald white guy had left his passport and they were trying to reunite him with it 😄 but it wasn’t me! 

On 8/31/2023 at 12:58 PM, tsb2 said:

Were you able to walk to cruise terminal from this hotel or did you require transportation if so how and what approx cost? Thanks

we stayed around the corner from here last week, and walked to the Zuiderdam at pier 30.  It was quoted as 20 mins and .6 miles or so on gooogle maps. 
 

we were apprehensive with luggage, but it’s all downhill until you are basically at the port area and since the weather was nice we tried it.  No issues.  And the shuttle between the piers pulled over and picked us up for the last 500meters or something since he knew where we were heading (once you get inside the port area they have a shuttle on loop to take folks in and out and between exit gates, but there is still nice sidewalk and it’s flat and easy to navigate)

Alternatively , there is a simple entrance and loop for Ubers and taxis and buses to use to drop off at terminal. They all seemed to know the drill and a few taxis always hung around to catch folks who wanted to venture out back into the city.  We used one of these when we headed to dinner after settling into our room.  We initially ordered an Uber to a restaurant on rue Saint John downtown and it was only $11 but would have been a 20min wait.   Since the taxis were right there, we hopped in one and by the end the meter rose to $13for the same trip. He only took cash but we handed him a twenty and asked for $5back and he seemed fine with that small tip.  Couldn’t have been easier. 

On 9/4/2023 at 1:10 PM, Morebeer said:

Is Uber available in Quebec City?

Yes, we Ubered from Quebec City airport into the old city area across from chateau Frontenac last week. The wait was only 10mins and the designated waiting area easy to find outside baggage claim. They had regular and XL options, if I recall.  It was $42usd on my credit card statement but the fare is shown in CAD on the Uber app and it was upper 50-something CAD. this was about 10pm on a Friday night.  
 

our driver was very kind, but spoke only French. It wasn’t an issue as all was handled through the app and I can speak a few words of french, but I was a bit surprised as I had read that most tourist-facing employees would be more fully bilingual. But again- it was no issue at all, even if I hadn’t been able to chat a bit. 
 

1 hour ago, SuzCruise said:

Just returned from a land trip to Bar Harbor and stayed at the Harborside.  It did appear that tenders were running from the pier next to the hotel.  That was a very small ship from American Cruise Lines.  We changed the dates of our trip to avoid the crowds of the behemoth Escape which was departing the day we arrived.  Not sure if huge ships tender into another pier.  

We were on Zuiderdam last week and it also was this location. On my phone the closest address looks like 47 West Street. 
 

The ship has to stay behind bar island, we were told. So it is out of view of the main harbor front. The tenders bring folks around to that west st location and there are tons of tour operators, golf cart rentals, etc right there. It was a foggy day for us, and so the Zuiderdam had to constantly blow their fog horn every few mins.  You could hear it a mile away into town, and we heard lots of grumbling complaints about it. 

I like them both for different reasons.  
 

I would also reccomend “life by Francesco “ YouTube channel. He mainly goes on virgin voyages and Disney cruises, but has some interesting videos from a flight attendant perspective as well. 

there is another couple with a YouTube channel called “JJ Cruise” who can have good info but I find a lot of their vids are just re-hashing of other info and often have ridiculous sensational titles that are misleading. Like “you’ll never guess why the cruise passenger was BANNED for life!” That gets annoying when it’s usually just a discussion of some posting here, and they offer no new info, just clickbait. 

12 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

I have never had these beer taps work.   The nearby bar always poured me one from their tap instead.   These were a nice idea, but they don't seem to work very well in practice

same experience for me on Rotterdam, both self-serve beer and Coke freestyle machine were not operational. (But easy to grab from any bar!)

@relayforlife tagging you to see my post above, since I saw you have this booked this week too.  Hope you have as great an experience!

@sgmn and @Julma returning back as promised. We did this water taxi to rowers wharf yesterday.   Couldn’t have been simpler! The crew were nice, they even graciously reterned to dock after a quick call when we (stupidly) forgot a backpack on board..  

walk is maybe 5 mins from exit of cruise terminal, literally in shadow of cruise ship off the bow. They include good instructions for directing you in the confirmation email. You can then choose what time at top of hour you want to head to airport, we walked around aquarium and long wharf area and into north end for brunch and stumbled into an art festival.  Would highly recommend! 

Just wanted to say yesterday I did the water taxi to rowes wharf with luggage storage, then later to the airport. Was perhaps inefficient as others have noted above, but we had 11 hours to kill after leaving Zuiderdam until our flight.  He staff were friendly, the boat was cute and perfectly fine for a short trip.  The guy even returned graciously after we (stupidly) forgot a backpack onboard and gave him a quick call. 
 

i would def suggest it for some scenic views of Boston harbor before a flight. Pickup is right at end of cruise dock, as you can see below and they send solid instructions for the 5 min walk in email.  
 

On 9/6/2023 at 6:33 PM, Pika8347 said:

Do you mind referencing 'moderately priced'? Like, $5 blackjack and $5 craps or $15 minimums?Just curious. 

yeah, like $5 a hand. 

On 8/31/2023 at 7:18 PM, slidergirl said:

I took 2 bottles for myself in my carry on to the Eurodam end of April for Alaska.  I knew about the corkage fee and ready to pay.  No one said a word.  No corkage paid.  I think it's maybe a roll of the dice who is doing the checking at the time.

here is my…scorecard (?) of bringing ports as far as getting wine on board:

Vancouver-corkage fee

venice- confiscated (this was at height of C.19, and we actually were bussed to trieste at last min and all was chaos, so I forgive this one!)

FLL- no one noticed in carry on either time 

Seward AK - someone even said “be careful” when they noticed the glass, but no charge

Quebec City- corkage fee

Its totally a crapshoot based on port, security staff, and conditions at the time. 
 

may the odds be in your favor! 

5 hours ago, agape01 said:

Just note that the Ritz Carlton has got two views. One view will be facing the marina bay area while the other view faces the back which is called the Kallang.

Make sure that your reservation is the one that faces the city.

Thank you for the note! Yes, they did have room rátes that specifically included bay views and we splurged on one. (It’s our honeymoon, so why not!?)