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Neuhoftraveler

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Posts posted by Neuhoftraveler

  1. We are spending a week in London before our EB TA on Sept. 2nd. We have no idea what to do during that week and not sure where to start looking. Did you find a good web site or travel agent you could recommend? Thanks.......

     

    Not sure I understand your itinerary, but there is no shortage of great things to see and do in London no matter what your interests. You might start with the London pages on TripAdvisor.

  2. Can't help you as to Kristiansand, but here's a suggestion for Helsinki: If you have only a half-day there, there's a public bus route that circles all the way around the main attractions. It leaves from very close to the cruise pier that's closest to the commercial heart of the city. (Sorry I can't give you a more specific description, it's been a while since we were there for our own half-day port call.) It's not technically a hop-on-hop-off route, but if you buy a 1-day transit pass at the nearby tourism office that comes to the same thing. Very inexpensive, although you'd need to do your own research at home as to what you wanted to get off the bus for.

  3. I heartily second Pugwash123's comments. Using the miracle of email, we arranged a to-order tour for the two of us with Alla Tours. We could not have been more satisfied with the results, including the pleasant young woman who was our unaccented-English-speaking guide. (Her father, she said, had been a Soviet Army officer. Hm.)

     

    Not to get off-topic, but this may be useful to the OP: Our main interest was the Hermitage, which is far too large to handle in a single visit. We worked out what periods and styles of painting we wanted to see, and sent the list off to Alla. Our guide created a schedule of half-day visits on two consecutive days that allowed us to see what we wanted in a most efficient sequence. The other half-days were devoted to other sights, including trips to Peterhof and to "Catherine's Palace" as well as a short canal boat trip.

     

    We also booked our own tickets to the Mikhailovsky Theatre for an opera performance ("Eugen Onegin," fittingly enough), at a fraction of the "ship's tour" price, and Alla created a private "evening tour" for us consisting of a car and driver to take us from ship to theatre and back, thus meeting the "escorted tour" requirement for visa-less foreigners.

  4. Things may have changed since we visited St. Petersburg in 2012 (on a Silversea cruise), but at that time individual visas were not (repeat, not) a requirement for touring the city and environs with a properly licensed tour operator such as Alla. (We also used a guide from Alla, and also were very pleased.)

     

    There has been much discussion of the visa issue on CC and on Trip Advisor over the years, and much misinformation. There is (or was) a widespread false impression that the cruise ship had a "ship's visa" that substituted for individual visas that would otherwise be needed. The fact is (or was) that there has never been such a thing as a "ship's visa," and the "ship's tours" that took people around without individual visas were operated by the same type of tour operators, under the same legal authority to escort visa-less foreigners, that you could book on your own at much less expense and with much greater choice and flexibility of touring programs. It's those contract operators who convinced the cruise lines (or convinced them to tell their passengers) that theirs is (or was) the only legal way for passengers to see the sights without an individual visa.

     

    I can say this with confidence because I have personally seen and read the controlling official Russian governmental regulation. It's worth noting that if you carefully read your cruise line's notices and informational material on this issue, you may find that the pre-cruise material is enough to scare you away from making independent plans, but the on-board notices once the ship approaches St. Petersburg are much more cagily worded. Caveat lector.

     

    A related point to bear in mind was told to me by an acquaintance who'd visited Russia on business numerous times and was in a position to know (if you get my drift): Those friendly tour guides who speak impeccable English almost certainly are active or supposedly former FSB intelligence agency employees. So watch your words carefully. As my acquaintance puts it, there's only one foreign language school in Russia where you learn to speak perfect, unaccented English, and it ain't Berlitz.

     

    To repeat, though: Things may have changed since 2012. You might check the St. Petersburg board in the "Ports" section of this forum to see what's currently being said (by reliable sources, of course).

  5. As a New Yorker born and bred, let me strongly recommend the Brooklyn Museum on Eastern Parkway, less than 3 miles by taxi from the Cruise Terminal. My San Francisco compatriot notwithstanding, it is not "smallish" at all, but rather is NYC's third largest, and has a world-class art collection of 1.5 million works (not all on display at one time, obviously).

     

    If art museums interest you and you decide to go into Manhattan, the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue at about 81st St. is one of the greatest in the world. It also is enormous, and you would be well advised to do some advance planning of what exactly you'd most like to see. With only a couple of hours to visit, consider instead the Frick Collection, also on Fifth Avenue at 70th St., a truly lovely small museum housed in the former residence/mansion of a famous Gilded Age industrial tycoon.

     

    An off-the-beaten-track museum that ought to be of special interest to out-of-towners is the Museum of the City of New York, somewhat further up Fifth Avenue (at 103d Street). It will show you the history of the city, from its founding to the present day, as well as as various temporary exhibits on specific aspects of NYC life both past and present.

     

    If your day in New York is a Saturday or Sunday, traffic even in Manhattan should not be bad, and a taxi from the Cruise Terminal to the "Museum Mile" (as it's sometime called, there are lots of others on Fifth Avenue I haven't mentioned) shouldn't take more than 30-40 minutes if that.

     

    Both you and my San Francisco compatriot might be interested to know that until 1898 Brooklyn was an independent city, and quite a large-ish one at that. Brooklyn-ites (who do not include me) are very particular about this fact. Witness that the major-league baseball team still known as the "Dodgers" was called the "Brooklyn Dodgers" before they shamefully decamped to Los Angeles some 50 years ago. (The Yankees have never been called the "Bronx Yankees," nor the Giants the "Manhattan Giants" before they too decamped to California.)

  6. The US Dep't of Agriculture fee covers the cost of maintaining an inspection force for plants and foodstuffs that some travelers try to bring in (or bring back) with them. The purpose of the inspections is to prevent the introduction of (non-human) pests and foodborne illness-causing organisms. Recall the questions on the customs declaration form asking about food and plants. Not only the declaration forms, but also the occasional random searches turn up such products that cannot legally be imported. The USDA inspectors are there to deal with these cases.

  7. I'm new to this board, and to Cunard, but have been buying wine for some time now. Most if not all the comments on Cunard wine pricing compare it to retail wine shop prices. Would not a more relevant comparison be restaurant wine list prices?

     

    That said, would someone kindly explain how to bring multiple bottles aboard (for consumption in-cabin or, upon paying corkage, in the dining rooms) without encountering difficulties under the 1 bottle per person limitation stated on the Cunard website?

  8. There are US insurers that issue travel insurance policies with waivers of the pre-existing conditions exclusion. Cost for a single trip runs about 5 to 10 percent of total covered costs (including cruise fares). I don't know whether they will issue policies to non-US residents, but it would be worth looking into. Just Google "trip insurance" and you'll see links to several Internet-based agents. We've used one such agent for more than 12 years now, covering half a dozen cruises, and have no complaints (including a couple of property-damage and trip-delay claims that were handled expeditiously and to our complete satisfaction).

  9. We will be sailing on QM2 transatlantic next December, and have a few brief questions:

     

    1. Is it true that QM2 does not always tie up in Brooklyn, but sometimes at the West Side piers in Manhattan, and sometimes even in NJ? If so, how long in advance of arrival is this determined?

     

    2. Approximately how long does it take Britannia-class passengers (US citizens -- no "World Club" perks) to disembark and get through immigration and customs in NY?

     

    3. Are the "sheltered" balconies fully enclosed with operable windows, or are they open to the elements?

     

    Thanks in advance to any who can provide answers based on actual experience.

  10. Hello All,

     

    Can anyone recommend a car service in Montego Bay to take two of us from the airport to Sunscape Splash resort? What is the going rate for this transfer? We also will need a transfer from the resort to the Montego Bay cruise pier the next day.

     

    Any suggestions, positive or negative, would be greatly appreciated.

  11. Thanks to all who responded. These are exactly the kind of report I was hoping for. Glad to hear also the good report of this particular itinerary on Certo.

     

    Aldukenew, what was the date of your chilly Certo tulip trip? Did you catch the tulips in full bloom?

     

    PS to Nana: Yes, I do know that the AMA website has pictures, but I also know that professional publicity pictures sometimes are better-looking than the reality. And in any case, what I asked was not what the cabins look like, but what's it like to be in them. Thanks again for your thoughts, though.

  12. We're considering a Low Countries ("Tulip Time") cruise next April on either AMA Certo or AMA Sonata, and wondering whether there are any significant differences between the "suites" and the AA cabins (other than cost). We've never been on a river cruise, but have sailed in and enjoyed higher-end cabins on the small ships of Star Clippers, Windstar, Regent, and Silversea. Can anyone who's used both a suite and a AA cabin on either of these AMA vessels or their sister vessels provide an experience-based comparison?

  13. Just to complete the picture, the laundry package for 8-night cruises is $124.90 for two people, all the clothes you can manage to get dirty. Well worth it, as you can have your pre-cruise laundry done as soon as you board the ship, and then on the last day, send out what you've been wearing, so you go home with clean clothes rather than loads of wash to do (not to mention unlimited laundry service during the voyage).

  14. I concur that on Santorini you don't need any kind of tour, ship's or private. As a previous poster said, the buses from Fira to Oia run continuously and are very cheap. The scenery from the road is the same whether you're in a tour van or public bus, and if you go by bus you can spend as much or little time in Oia as you like.

  15. Just to reinforce others' reports, we have used Stefano's Romecabs twice for transfers from Civitavecchia port to Fiumicino airport, and will be doing so again next month. (As others have said, despite the name it's not a taxicab company.) The experience was flawless every time, with spotless Mercedes cars and uniformed, English-speaking drivers waiting for us literally at the foot of the gangplank. The price was competitive.

     

    As to confirmations, their new automated email system does seem to leave one hanging, but I intend simply to send an email before we leave home, requesting re-confirmation. They have always responded promptly to every other email I've sent, so I have no worries on this.

  16. There is a very easy, inexpensive, and totally private alternative to an organized tour, private or otherwise.

     

    If you can easily get from your ship's pier to the Sorrento railway station (taxi would be most efficient), there are frequent trains direct to Pompeii, where the station is directly opposite the entrance to the ruins. The trip takes about 40 minutes. At Pompeii, numerous fully-licensed private guides will be hanging about and soliciting business. Their hourly rates, for as long as you want to be there, are quite inexpensive. You just hire your guide, buy your ticket, and proceed at your own pace for as long as you like. Then, when you've had enough, you're free to go back over to the railway station for the next train back to Sorrento.

     

    However you get there, go to Pompeii as early in the morning as possible, because it gets hot as blazes there.

     

    When we did this a few years ago, we had ample time to wander the ruins and still get back to Sorrento for a very pleasant lunch near the harbor before re-boarding our ship. There are lots of threads on TripAdvisor with details on exactly how to do it.

  17. Warning: On Sunday, 8 June, Venice will host the 40th Annual Vogalonga, which is a rowing-boat parade/festival/race that last year featured over 1,000 boats. This event will occupy the Grand Canal and St. Mark's Basin for most of the day (10:00 a.m. or earlier to 3:00 p.m. or later), with all other boat traffic banned -- including vaporetti, water taxis, and everything else.

     

    So if you were planning to be in Venice and get to or from your cruise ship by vaporetto or water taxi on that day, you'd better come up with Plan B. (And of course in Venice there is no Plan B, except walking).

  18. OP: If you never been to Venice before, I respectfully suggest that you wait until after your visit before you start dissing on too many tourists invade the city.:)

     

    To p mori7: For your information, I have been visiting Venice since 1964, which probably is before you were born. Nor can I even imagine what in my post could responsibly be called "dissing" anyone or anything. If there's any "dissing" going on here, it's not by me.

     

    Another thing: "Way back," there weren't as many people in all of Europe as now visit Venice every year.

     

    So tell us, p mori7: Have you ever been to Venice? If you have, did you spend all of your time on Murano, Burano, and Torcello? Let us know.

  19. Much has been written about the sheer volume of tourists now regularly overwhelming Venice. But I've never seen this quantified. So I looked up the list of cruise ships that will be in port on the day we arrive there for our Adriatic cruise a few days later.

     

    Keep in mind that the total population of Venice these days is said to be only about 55,000. The number of passengers cruising into Venice that day, plus the number cruising out that day (and not double-counting those on a one-day port call), is -- a staggering 13,009. And keep in mind that this doesn't include cruise passengers already in town whose ships depart a day or two later, or those still in town whose ships arrived a day or two earlier, not to mention non-cruising tourists who arrived by air, by rail, by car, or on a bus tour (day-trippers or otherwise).

     

    No wonder the Venetians are said to prefer pigeons to tourists.

  20. Believe me, no need for an emergency sandwich. SPB is a big, cosmopolitan city overrun with tourists. For a quick lunch such as at the cafes at the main attractions like Catherine Palace or the Hermitage or Peterhof, most of it will look pretty similar to such places everywhere. For a local touch, the blini at the Peterhof outdoor cafe were interesting (think crepes). The pierogis (not at Peterhof), not so much.

  21. Question for Sinny (and anyone else with an opinion): A while ago, you commented that in your opinion the boat trips are not good value. We have one full day in Helsinki (8:00 am-6:00 pm, which for practical purposes I suppose really means 9 to 5. We expect to use the Tram 3B/3T route, with a 1-day pass to allow "hopping on" and "hopping off." And we're also considering the Stromma "Beautiful Canal Route" trip (1.5 hours, 20 Euros). Can you comment on this particular trip? Are there other boat trips we should consider?

     

    Any and all opinions would be greatly appreciated.

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