Bedruthen

Hi there,

 

I can only comment on HAL. We received an upsell offer from them last year, but it would have cost more than if we had just booked that grade originally. Our American friends also received upsell offers at the same time, but theirs was much more competitive. The other problem is the time difference, we received the offer overnight and by the time we got up the next morning, availability had been taken by the USA market!!

Add to that the fact that RCI no longer have a UK call centre- I believe it's now located in Guatemala and I suspect it would be tricky to rely on.

The currency in Turkey is Turkish Lira. Some places accept euros but the exchange rate is atrocious. I see you say the ship is going to Istanbul, but I understood that RCI is no longer calling there as there are major works being undertaken at the port?

No you don't need to take a tour. We walked off the ship and went to the tourist information office to find the details of the local mini bus, called the Dolmus. It was a 10 minute walk to the bus stop and they accepted either Turkish lira or Euro onboard. The journey took about 30-40 minutes and we were dropped off at the closest entrance point. It was possible to pick up a taxi there to take you to the far entrance, but we chose to walk, which was easy to follow and took about 10 minutes. To get the bus back, you wait by the road, where you were dropped off. There was a man employed by the Dolmus waiting there and he will phone the bus and get you a seat on the next bus. It was very easy and so cheap. We had plenty of time and still managed to look around Kusadisi at the end of our day. Ephesus is amazing, the best port of call on the Med.

I feel your pain! We have been trying to work out an itinerary for Alaska and we decided early on that Glacier Bay is a must, so that narrowed it down re cruise lines to HAL and Princess for us. We will take an inside since the best viewing will be from the open decks and money saved will be spent on the best excursions. HAL have an interesting itinerary which includes Homer and Kodiak, which we are seriously considering but if you want a balcony they are sold out on the July/Aug sailing. We have decided against Rocky a Mountaineer and are renting a car in Calgary then doing a weeks self drive to Vancouver

When looking for a hotel close to the port, any of the hotels located on the creek would be ideal, however you need to be on the right side of the creek, ie on the port side, as traffic is a nightmare in Dubai and the shortest journey, depending on time of day can take forever. Depending on how long you are in Dubai, you could consider one of the hotels by Dubai Mall, giving direct access to the Mall, the Palace downtown Dubai is lovely, then take the taxi to the port.

You can walk from the port to the train station, it's not far and then get a train to Tel Aviv. From there we caught a local mini bus service to Jerusalem. We did it and then stayed overnight in Jerusalem at St Andrews Hotel. I can thoroughly recommend this, it was very easy.

We have noticed that HAL have been struggling to fill the Eastern Med cruises this season. This would appear to be another rebranding exercise to get bums on seats. Given the unrest within the region and the Internet chatter regarding Istanbul, I do not find this entirely surprising and I would not chose to cruise this area at the present time.

It will be a normal day in Muscat, although being a Friday, it is of course their day of worship,

in our experience, when the ship is overnight in Dubai, passengers are coming and going all the time. You may need to organise your early departure onboard, if you require help with your luggage, but the ship will be expecting passengers to disembark anytime from arrival on Sunday, so you will not be alone. Immigration checks will be carried out at the airport as normal. Don't worry, you will be able to disembark without a problem and there will be taxis waiting for you, whatever the time.

The only site really worth visiting in Abu Dhabi is the Grand Mosque. It is well worth a visit, but I would not personally consider this unless I was actually in port in Abu Dhabi. The road trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi will take anything from 1.5 to 2.5 hours, depending on the day and time of the week and how many accidents take place. I think that you should reconsider trying to see both cities in a day, as you may end up disappointed. If you want to visit a mosque then you can visit Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai, or even more interesting book the tour offered by the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for cultural understanding. This takes place in the creek area of Dubai, which is the oldest part of the city. You will be taken around the area, visit a Mosque and have the opportunity to ask any questions that you may have about the Islam religion, their customs and lifestyle, see the website for a full explanation of the tours available. In addition the creek area is close to the cruise port and after the tour you can take a local abra ( water boat) across the creek to the Spice souk and Gold souk. Having lived in Dubai for a few years, I know that this was the experience that our guest always enjoyed the most. If you want to take a taxi, they are metered and cheap, however traffic in Dubai is horrendous and what may look a trip of just a couple of miles can take up to an hour, so allow for this in your itinereray. Finally Friday is a day of worship, so mosque visits are not allowed on that day. You could even consider negotiating a rate with a taxi driver for the day, this would definitely save you time and allow you to plan your day according to what interests you.

 

You say you only have a day in Dubai, are you in port overnight? Another lovely thing to do is to take an evening dinner cruise on the creek, I would recommend Bateaux Dubai, as they have the best food although they use a modern boat, rather than the old dhows used by other companies. You can book direct with them on their website, otherwise just google Dubai Creek dinner cruise for other companies.

 

As with all things, you just need to decide on your priorities and then plan your sightseeing accordingly. I am happy to help if you need it.

We had an aft cabin on NA, underneath the Lido deck and also suffered with noise from the deck above. There is however a difference between the noise created by passengers and that created by the deck staff carrying out their duties. In our case it was noise created b the staff stacking and unstacking the sunloungers late at night and at 5am in the morning. Such activities are under the direct control of the ships management and consideration should be given to the effect on passengers occupying the cabins on the deck below. When we complained about the disturbance it was agreed that the staff would not commence placing the sun loungers until after 7.30 am, a compromise which kept both parties happy.

 

Passenger created noise is more difficult to manage given its random and unpredictable nature, but the answer in both cases is not to book a cabin under the lido deck. We had naively assumed that any noise would be restricted to daylight hours, which would not have bothered us, and maybe a late night hose down of the deck. Lesson learnt and we won't ever book a cabin underneath the lido deck again.

I agree with the previous poster. The two adult only cruises that we have taken have had a significantly higher age profile, we are in our mid 50’s and found the ships lacking in late night atmosphere. I would not chose another adult only cruise unlees it was for a particular itinerary. If you cruise outside of the school holidays, if you go north instead of South, or if you chose HAL or similar, then you are unlikely to be troubled by children or teenagers, but are more likely to have a more mixed age profile. It really is just a question of picking the right time of year, the right ship and the right itinereray .

We did this last year. We walked from the cruise ship to the station, took a good 20-30 minutes then took the train to Herculaneum, which is spelt Ercolano locally. We purchased a ticket at the station, you need to go downstairs to pick up the Circumvesuviana line, don't join the queues upstairs which are for the mainline stations. It takes you through some pretty rough areas and you will need to watch your belongings. Once off the train, it is a 5 minute walk downhill to Herculaneum. We chose this over Pompeii, because, as a previous poster has said, it is better preserved and less busy with tourists. With regard to a guided tour, we always use some of the money that we have saved to buy a good guide book beforehand, either in the UK or from one of the many shops which invariably line the streets near tourist sites.

[quote name='sun~']I know this may ruffles few feathers, but I consider HAL the lower end of the mainstream cruise lines. The ships are plain jane, no bells and whistles. And for those of us who have been on a few other cruise lines, the over all service is nothing special.[/QUOTE]

This.
We cruise according to itinerary, so experience a range of cruise lines and agree that service on board is nothing special. Would always choose Celebrity or Cunard over HAL

We all have different cruise experiences and I have reported mine accurately. If you care to read my review a little more carefully, you will see that I said the smoking and noise were not from the same cabin, which is why you did not share my experience

I wrote the review about cabin noise and I would recommend that you switch. I don't know whether the positioning of the loungers might vary from ship to ship, and consequently noise may not be the same on each ship, but you would have to be a very heavy sleeper not to be woken up.

We booked the cabin knowing that we might experience some disturbance when the decks were washed, but hadn't realised that every evening they stack up the sun loungers and then put them out again each morning. We were advised they have to do this for health and safety reasons. I don't know if this a recent practice, which might explain why people who cruised earlier didn't have an issue.

The trouble we had was that because our itinerary was port intensive, we set an alarm for 7am ready for to get off the ship. Being woken at 5am or thereabouts by noise, meant we were getting so stressed waiting for it to stop that we couldn't get back to sleep before we had to get up again. And that's not a holiday. I did have silicone earplugs with me, but still woke up, so maybe I am just super sensitive to noise disturbance.

Sorry to sound so negative but I wish someone had warned me beforehand of the actual procedure on Lido deck and the possibility of disturbance.

I wrote the review about cabin noise and I would recommend that you switch. The aft cabins are fantastic, just not directly under the Lido

Embarkation

 

We arrived at the port around 11am and parked the car without difficulty. On entering the hall we were directed to the check in area and then told to take a seat and await embarkation starting around 11.30am, by which time the hall was full with standing room only. Embarkation commenced as planned but it was at this point we realised that we should have been issued with a colour coded card for boarding. As a result, by the time we were given a card, we did not get onboard until after 2, over 3 hours after we had arrived. There were numerous complaints about the length of time that boarding had taken, but it surely wasn't helped by the fact that whilst there were 20 check in desks, only 3 X-ray scanners were being used, causing a significant bottleneck. Our first cruise with HAL and not a great start.

 

Accommodation

Cabin 8173

This is an aft cabin directly under the Lido Deck. Here's a piece of advice. NEVER EVER book a cabin in this area of the ship unless you are hard of hearing. At 4.30am your early morning wake up call starts. You will hear the hosepipe being dragged across the deck prior to hose down. Well that's just the warm up act to get you in the mood. Just as you think it's safe to go back to sleep, the main act starts. Having stacked all the sun loungers the previous night, apparently a health and safety requirement, they now have to been unstacked and laid out for the next day. This delightful activity commences sometime after 5am, they like to vary it, just to keep the surprise element. One crew member working alone, lifts 3 sunloungers off the pile, which he then drops on the deck and drags each one in to position. Finish and repeat until the deck is covered in sunloungers and every passenger in the aft area underneath is wide awake and ready to throw themselves overboard. By day 3 we succeeded in getting an agreement with the management, that the loungers would not be put out until 8am, but the cleaning of the deck between 4.30 and 5.30am continued to disturb us and a number of other cabins. What was particularly irritating was the fact that we later learnt that the ship was sailing with a number of empty cabins, any one of which we would have taken, if it had meant a quiet nights rest, but this option was never offered.

If you can get over the noise issue, then you will find yourself in a reasonable sized cabin, slightly longer than others in the same class. There is a shortage of drawer space, especially noticeable in the dressing table area, where does a girl put her make up? The bathroom similarly lacks enough storage, and it's a shame that the mirrors are fixed. Other ships have cupboards either side of the basin with mirrored doors, giving additional storage an better use of the mirrors. The TV system was newly installed and we appreciated the ability to select a film to watch at a time of our choosing, although could someone please install episode 8 of Downtown Abbey, you know the last one of the series, it is after the climax of the whole season and it's missing!

 

The balcony was a reasonable size and deeper than some others. On deck 8 the balcony is covered by the overhang from the deck above, which we liked as it meant we could sit out there in hot sun or rain and not be troubled. We think that our neighbours on the adjoining balcony might have been experimental beagles, judging by the amount of cigarettes they smoked, from breakfast to sundown, and the lack of air movement at the back of the ship meant that the smell and smoke lingered. On the other side we definitely had honeymooners as it was the first time that we had ever noticed 'activities' from an adjoining cabin, but then their headboard was against our cabin wall.

 

Food

The food on board was generally of a very good standard. Like most of the American cruise lines, we found that there were never enough vegetables served, but that is easily remedied by requesting extra vegetables with each meal. The food arrived hot and was well flavoured. I would recommend the luncheon menu at Tamarind, although it's a set menu, which didn't change during our cruise so once dining there is enough. The biggest disappointment was the afternoon tea which was by far the worst that I have ever experienced. We were immediately served with cakes, but no sign of anything remotely resembling a sandwich. Eventually, 20 minutes after we sat down a tray containing something which looked like a slice of bread with processed cheese on top and a quarter of a tomato was presented to us. This apparently is a sandwich. We declined. This truly unpleasant experience was topped off with something called a scone, which was clearly the winner of a smallest scone competition, not improved by whatever that white stuff is that American cruise lines call cream, Please,please, scones need real cream, not shaving foam mixed with sugar.

 

The service in the Lido has recently been changed. In an attempt to provide better service, the table is now set with a napkin and cutlery, and the Lido staff will offer to bring your drinks, water, tea etc to your table. However its a nice idea. But it simply didn't work. There are not enough staff available to get the drinks, so you sit down, not knowing whether you should fetch your own drinks or wait to be asked. At busy times, tables were not always reset, so it was like a game of hide and seek,you had to lift the napkin and see if there was any cutlery hidden inside, if not move on and try the next one.

 

Service

Cruise Critic forum is full of high praise for the service levels on HAL, but I wonder if these reports are written by people with little experience of other cruise lines. The service that we received was perfectly adequate but was it not outstanding, nor any better than other cruise lines provide. I would personally rate both Cunard and Celebrity as offering a superior product. The other real gripe on this cruise was the way that the ships staff would cut to the front of the queues. This happened to us more than once. When waiting to be served at the Explorations cafe, the staff from the art gallery simply walked in front of us and ordered their coffee. I can only imagine that they were in a rush to get back to serve all the eager passengers waiting to secure a piece of the amazing artwork on offer. On another occasion, a group of crew members walked straight to the front of what was a long queue and boarded ahead of the waiting passengers.

 

Entertainment.

 

There was no introductory show on the first evening, the first time that we have experienced a first night empty theatre before. On the other hand it may have been a blessing in disguise. We went to the first production show the following evening and left midway. I don't know if it was the acoustics, but never have I heard so much female screeching. The second night was a comedy act who had once appeared on some American Talk show - Judge Judy maybe as his act was certainly criminal. Here's a tip, when playing to an International Audience, no one is going to laugh if your jokes are based on the quirks of life in the USA and that might be why your audience diminished rapidly. When the next nights act was advertised as the runners up on UK X Factor circa 2005, we decided to admit defeat and spent the rest of our evenings filing our toenails, so nothing else to report on this.

 

PORTS OF CALL

 

We never take ships tours, as we much prefer to get amongst the locals, and have always found the idea of following somebody waving an umbrella utterly bizarre. So only read on if you want to know how to DIY it. One piece of advice, as you don't get the services of a guide, take time to read about the place beforehand and buy a guide book before you start your tour.

 

Katakolon

 

This is the port that serves Olympia. Immediately outside the port there is a private shuttle bus service which charges 10eur return for the trip to Olympia. It was easy to locate and the journey was about 40 minutes. The entrance cost for Olympia was 6eur with a further 3eur for the museum. Olympia is a large site, picturesque and fairly flat. Clean western style toilets are located in a block at the far end of the site, free to use.

I would advise that you take the time to research the site beforehand, as there were very few information boards to advise what you were seeing and there are no discernible structures, mainly just columns. The private shuttle bus drops you by the shops in Olympia, just a short downhill walk to the site, so take 5 minutes and buy a good guide book before you go to the site, as it will improve your experience and understanding. Don't miss the museum, it has displays of the statues and items found at Olympia, attractively laid out, but not overwhelming. After your visit, there will probably be time to wander around the few shops in Olympia and enjoy a drink in one of the many cafes. You will be given a return time for the shuttle, don't try to turn up and sneak on an earlier one, as they will check your ticket and you will have to wait for your scheduled shuttle.

 

Piraeus, Greece

 

We chose not to visit Athens, having been there before, so we decided to walk around Piraues. With hindsight, I would probably take the little 5eur train tour outside the port, and then go back in on foot, having got my bearings. To pick up the train or the hop on hop off bus tours, turn left out of the port and you will see them waiting about 5 minutes walk.

 

Istanbul

The ships dock in the modern city and you have a choice of transport to take you in to Istanbul. Just outside the terminal is a tram line. Turn right from outside the terminal and you will see the stop, then take a tram to Sultanahmet, which goes back past the ship. Alternatively you could walk, but it takes about 40 minutes. The ship ran a shuttle service which it didn't announce until after the excursion desk has closed. The cost is $10 return and it drops you at the Grand Bazaar, from there it is an easy walk to the blue Mosque, Haig Sofia and the Topkapi palace. We chose to visit the Grand Bazaar the first evening and then explore the Topkapi Palace the next day. Whatever you do, prepare for long queues everywhere. If you are on a ships tour you might save some time as tickets will already be purchased, but once inside you still join the same queues as everyone else, so it's not a great advantage.

Topkapi Palace. We arrived about 10am and purchased our ticket from the vending machine. The queue was only about 30 people, only 3/6 machines were working, but it was only a short wait. The entrance fee was 30 Turkish lira ( get your currency at the cruise terminal from the exchange desk, you walk right past it) the place itself consists of a number of separate buildings each with its own queue. We had purchased a guide book the previous day and had therefore already decide which parts were of interest to us. We chose to pay the additional 15lira to visit the harem and I would definitely recommend this. We got there about 11am and it was surprisingly quiet, although by the time we came out it was a lot busier. The harem is beautifully decorated and if you are short of time, then go here first, enjoy and if time allows then visit treasury room 4 and drool over the 86 carat diamond found on a rubbish dump! Just a point, you cannot just visit the harem, you will have to pay to get in the palace and then buy another ticket for the harem, but at a combined cost of 45lira, it's still good value.

 

Mytilene

Unfortunately high sea swell,meant that we missed this port, to be compensated by a complimentary glass of champagne at dinner. If any port had to missed them this was the one I would gave chosen, given its lack of any obvious attraction.

 

Kusadisi, Greece

 

This is the port for Ephesus, which can be easily reached by local bus. On leaving the port, call in the Tourist Info and grab a map. Ask them to mark the bus station then head off in that direction. However it is not a bus station, but a bus stop and you will need to ask the locals for directions, but it's about a 10minute walk. You need to look for a Dolmus, which is a white 15 seater coach and it will be travelling in the direction of Selcuk (Efes). The fare is 6TL so try to have lira with you, Otherwise you will pay a lot more in euro (6 eur ) the journey took about 20 minutes and drops you at the side of the road. Just walk past the waiting taxis and turn right in to a gravel road which leads to Ephesus. At the for in the road, go right. It's about a 10/15 minute walk from the main road. Entry to Ephesus is 30TL, no other currency accepted but you can use credit card. The site is truly amazing, but before you walk round, if you don't have a guide then spend some of the money that you have saved on a book from the museum, as this will help you understand that you are seeing. Allow at least 2 hours at the site, more if you visit the Virgin Mary's house. Toilets on site are by the car park, clean and free. To get the bus back, walk directly across the road, the day we traveled there was a man waiting who organised the next bus for you. We left around 1.30pm and the buses were running frequently.

Kusadisi is a good place to wander around if you don't want to visit Ephesus. It has a very high number of shops selling genuine fakes, handbags, watches T shirts jewellery and belts, a genuine fake Mulberry Bayswater was priced around 800Tl, so £200. The quality of the leather was not as good as might be found elsewhere in the world and the prices were higher.

 

Santorini

 

We docked at 7am, along with MSC Lirica. To get to the little town, you have to climb up the equivalent of a cliff. You have 3 choices, the funicular, which takes 24 passengers at a time, a donkey or you walk. There are no taxis, as there is no vehicular access to the quay. We expected to encounter a long wait for the funicular, but leaving the ship at just after 9, we got straight on our tender, bought our funicular ticket for 5euro each and had virtually no wait. It's the usual story of jewellery store, souvenir shops and cotton goods, but it's a pretty place to stroll around, and lots of places to stop, get a coffee and admire the views. There was a very long queue for the funicular to go back down, so we chose to take the footpath down. I read that it was 600 steps, but pretty sure it was a lot more than that. You share the path with the very dejected looking donkeys, so I would imagine that if it were wet, with donkey droppings, the steps could be quite slippery. The descent took about 20 minutes, so be sure to allow enough time.

 

Argostoli

Another attractive Greek island. We took the ships tender and you arrive directly in the town. As you face inland, turn left and you will find the Main Street and shops. A couple of hours is long enough to wander around, get a beer and catch up with emails. Keep an eye out for the large turtles in the bay, we spotted several during our visit.

 

 

So what did we make of our first HAL cruise? Having had a week to reflect, it was fine. The service matched other similar cruise lines, but we didn't consider it to be outstanding. We were however impressed with the efforts made by the staff to address reduce the Cabin noise issue.

We would cruise with HAL again, but it probably isn't the start of a long monogamous relationship. The lack of younger people , on board does without doubt change the atmosphere on board and the lack of decent entertainment meant we found ourselves in bed earlier then expected.

We thought that the afternoon tea on Niuew Amsterdam recently was pretty poor. The service was abysmal, there were no sandwiches available and it was the most disappointing part of the whole cruise

Now this is how afternoon tea should look

 

istanbul will be heaving with tourists. The lines will be huge and 12000 additional visitors will have little additional impact.

The Dolmus takes you to the bottom end, nearest the theatre. We didn't have a guide but we did purchase an excellent guidebook, with overlays, in the shop on site before we started to walk the site. We always recommend that you buy a good guide book if you DIY and it makes a great souvenir when you get home.

Expect two formal, which are normally during sea days. Didn't notice much dressing up on our recent HAL Med cruise, so as long as your DH has tie and jacket, that will be sufficient

This is what we did last week, when a bereavement meant we couldn't do the organised tour.

On arrival in Kusadisi, turn left out of the port buildings and you will see tourist info diagonally opposite across the road. Go and get a map of Kusadisi and ask them to indicate the bus station. It Is not a bus station in the way we think of it, more an area where the small local buses called Dolmuss stop. You want the bus that is heading to SELCUK / EFES. Head off in the direction shown on the map by walking along side the fort, keeping it to your left. You will come to a main shopping road, turn left until you reach another wider road. Go right ( you have a map, so check you are heading in the right direction), walk along for about 200 metres to the crossroad and turn left. You should walk past a small taxi office, take road first left and there is the bus shelter. Wait for next Dolmuss to Selcuk/Efes. We had to ask 2 or 3 times for directions, but it was fine. From the tourist office to the bus stop is about 10-15 minutes. The fare to Ephesus is 5 Turkish lira. Strongly suggest you use lira as otherwise the cost is 5 euro ! The bus takes about 20/25 minutes and the driver will indicate the stop ( it comes a mile or two after the water park area)

When you get off the bus you will see a layby with taxis waiting in it, who will take you to the other end of the site if you want to cut some of the walking. If you don't, then walk past the taxi rank and turn down the lane on the right. When the path splits, go right and after about 10 minutes you will reach the car parking area. Walk through and there is the entrance to the site, note, they don't accept euros so you will need either lira or a credit card to pay the entry fee.

 

To return, go back to your start point, but you will need to cross the road to wait on the other side. When we did this last week, there was a man with a walkie talkie, who will sort out seats for you on the next Dolmuss. We had to wait about 15 minutes. Get on and you will be dropped off back at the start point.

I would strongly suggest that you get Turkish lira. The exchange rate is dire otherwise. For example we took a local bus, the price was 5TL or 5 eur.!

So $1 in local lira, or $6 if paying in euros.

Don't bother, just take the 10eur coach shuttle it works really well