cruisinqt

No they don’t do anything specific for Alaska in general. But generally speaking RCCL, Carnival, & NCL have more night time activities going on than lines like Celebrity, Princess, & HAL. And there’s nothing wrong with that, I love the pampering on the higher end luxury lines. It’s just that by 10 pm things pretty much shutdown so if someone is a night owl and likes to stay up late and have fun then they need to keep that in mind when booking these cruise lines.

Royal, Carnival and NCL will have more nightlife with late night activities like comedy shows, karaoke, and piano bar sing alongs. But you’re right about the age demographics it will definitely be a lot higher on an Alaskan cruise, especially when it’s a transatlantic or transpacific.

This is the equivalent to asking which car is better Toyota, Honda, or Nissan. Everyone has their preferences and everyone will give a different answer. Royal and NCL will have a younger crowd with lots more late night activities and they’re cheaper but they aren’t luxurious and won’t pamper you like the higher end lines. Princess and Celebrity are more luxurious and will pamper you but you will have an older crowd and there won’t be much going on after 10 pm at night. All of them are great cruise lines that have good and bad points. It’s all according to what you’re looking for.

Yeah when I saw the quote for 50 I was ecstatic it sounded too good to be true and unfortunately it was. I felt like $348 for round trip transportation to a place only 30 minutes away was pretty steep. Then Asgrims taxi service quoted me 150 euros which was much better so I chose them. Plus he emailed me back immediately every time I had a question. The other place took forever to respond. And after all of the arrangements were handled and finished he emailed me again to remind me to make reservations at Vok baths since they fill up quickly. I’m confident I’ll have a good experience with him.

He just put 50 in the email where he quoted me (evidently they often abbreviate it like that in Iceland). It didn’t say USD or ISK. So I just assumed it was $50. But after emailing back and forth it was made clear he meant 50.000 ISK which was converted to $348 at that time using my converter. But that was over a month ago and the conversion rates fluctuate so I’m sure it’s a different price now. I didn’t go look up the current conversion I just put the amounts I had down in my notes from that time.

If it’s a casino booking I’d call the casino. They often have offers that haven’t even been advertised yet that they can give you. I’ve gotten the free inside cabin before and called to upgrade to a balcony and was comped the balcony. You’ll probably get a better deal calling them. It’s a hassle to call but well worth it.

My husband and I both hit a lot on the Celebration a couple months ago.

You’re welcome. I’d been cruising a number of years before I found out. I saw someone in line to get back on board in Aruba and they had a 12 pack of cokes with them. It went right through they never questioned anything. Now I grab some when I can especially now that they don’t carry coke anymore.

My husband and I are very adventurous with food so that sounds perfect thanks for the suggestions

Great that’s exactly what I was wanting to know. We will be doing a nonstop overnight flight in premium seats so hopefully we won’t be too jet lagged. But we will have two full days there before heading to Barcelona via train early on the third day (I’ve heard the train ride is very scenic). We were interested in the palace, doing some shopping, and trying out some local restaurants. I’ll look for hotels in that area and I’ll research the area around the opera. Thanks.

We would love to stay there longer but not this trip since we are doing a lengthy transatlantic repositioning cruise. Our cruise is out of Barcelona but we are flying into Madrid because it was cheaper and we had heard the train ride to Barcelona is gorgeous. We were interested in seeing the palace, doing some shopping, and trying out tapas at some nice local restaurants. We are foodies so the food is almost as important as the sightseeing. Our flight is an overnight nonstop flight in premium seats so hopefully we won’t be too jet lagged. We will have 2 full days and on the third day we will be getting on the train first thing in the morning. Hopefully we will be able to come back and stay a week in each city but on this trip it’s just not possible.

Just to clarify, in my original post the guy quoted me 50.00 Icelandic Krona not $50 USD so it would be $348 USD. I did find a better deal with a different driver though. Vok baths gave me several taxi services to email. The one I used was asgrims taxi service for 150 euros round trip which is a lot better deal. They responded right away and gave a better price. Their email is: asgrimstaxi@gmail.com Vok baths also gave me these other taxi services emails to contact: hylnur@saeti.is taxi@mjamja.is helgig.taxi@gmail.com I hope this helps.

Great I’ll check them out but what area should I stay in? I’ve never been to Madrid

I’ll check them out thanks. So I guess the area to stay in would be near Royal Palce, Temple of Debob, and Plaza De España then. I’ll keep that in mind.

We are staying 4 days in Spain before our transatlantic repositioning cruise out of Barcelona. We are staying two nights in Madrid then two nights in Barcelona with a train ride in between. Does anyone have Madrid hotel recommendations? I’m not even sure what area is the best to stay in. I’ve booked Hotel Jazz for our Barcelona stay (it had tons of good reviews here) but there’s not many recommendations here on CC for Madrid (that I can find anyways.) I haven’t booked the train ride between the two stays either so any help there would be greatly appreciated too.

That sounds very similar to what we are doing in Seydisfjordur. We booked a premium package with locker rooms, a sauna, a cool mist shower, bath robes, a free hot tea bar, and there’s even a swim up bar. I love doing things like that.

Thanks for the info. We booked the Golden Circle tour in Reykjavik and decided to do the geothermal baths in Seydisfjordur at Vok baths instead. But we will be in Reykjavik for 14 hours so it’s nice to know about Sky Lagoon if we decide we want to hit a geothermal bath that evening.

I just order the bottled water online, it’s $9.95 for a 12 pack and will be waiting for you in your cabin. Each person in your party can bring a 12 pack of canned drinks. It can’t be in your checked luggage it has to be with you as you board. You can also bring more 12 packs of soda on board at each port.

Thanks I’ll check him out.

I booked with Saga Travel for our stops in Reykjavik and Akurreyri. They have some of the best prices out there. And they have really good reviews too. Our cruise lines tour is the exact same itinerary but double the price. I’ve gotten to where I really dislike booking with the cruise line. It’s so crowded and you’re always waiting on someone that’s wandered off and can’t be found. I can’t wait to see Iceland

We live in the countryside on a couple of acres in a small town so that sounds wonderful to me. I figured seeing various animals along mostly deserted roads would be the case in Seydisfjordur and Grundarfjordur (our other ports) since they are so small. But with Reykjavik being much bigger and being the capital I figured there would be a lot more traffic to deal with initially right there in the city. Being from the countryside I hate big city traffic, especially if it’s in a foreign country with different traffic laws. But driving in the rural areas of Iceland sounds wonderful.

Oh my Ottawa has extremely cold winters. I don’t blame you I’d do the same thing. October through December it’s usually in the 50’s-70’s. January and February is our winter with a few cold snaps then it’s back to the 50’s-70’s until June when summer hits. We do have incredibly mild winters. It was in the 80’s today. Austin is a great place to live with lots of growth and job opportunities. It’s a couple of hours from where I live. I’m 30 minutes south of Fort Worth.

Yeah it was a real bummer. People around here are pretty sore about it.

I looked through my notes (yes I keep notes when I’m planning something like this) and I did look into getting a rental car in Seydisfjordur. I just didn’t like the tours offered they sounded boring and I really wanted to go to the Vok geothermal hot baths in Egilsstadir which is a 30 minute drive away. It has a swim up bar in the pools, a free hot tea bar, a sauna, and a really nice restaurant. But the only bus going that way left before we arrived and a taxi was super expensive. So I looked into car rentals but they aren’t available in Seydisfjordur. Then I found a private driver that will drive us round trip for $163 (that’s for a total of 4 people.) All we had to do was book Vok baths ourselves which was very inexpensive. He told me that there aren’t any rental cars in the smaller ports but it’s easy to get one in Reykjavik. Good luck.

I never looked into it because I read some posts about it being a complicated and time consuming process in Iceland. But since we are in Reykjavik for 14 hours it might be worth it there. I just didn’t want to mess with traffic in a large city in a foreign country.