mev

Thanks for the advice, we're booked at the Leonardo Royal

Something else checked off!

Mary

The Southampton Harbor Hotel is beautiful, but way too expensive for three nights and we need two rooms.  We will be staying in Winchester after our daughter flies home.

I liked the look of "Leonardo Royal" but reviews are iffy.

Thoughts?

We are looking for three nights accommodations in a nice hotel, with a large space to relax in our room, in the evenings before our cruise.  We are okay spending a little more on our rooms.  We do want to be near shops and restaurants and will hopefully be doing tours from the hotel two days.  This will be our third cruise out of Southampton.  As my maiden name is Winchester, we want our daughter to visit Winchester, a lovely place, in our opinion.

Thoughts?  

There is only a charge for the shuttle to the ship, sign up when you arrive.

No charge for shuttle from the airport to the hotel

Advice needed. We will be arriving in Amsterdam on HAL Prinsendam, at the end of our TA. As we disembark, we will be boarding Viking Longship Aegir. I cannot determine if the ships are in the same area, or if transportation will be available. Does anyone know if we can arrange private transportation so we know up front what the cost will be.

Thanks for your help and advice.

Mary

We hired a driver for this.It was a really nice day. The winery was Tenuta Torciano which was just a few minutes outside of San Gimignano.They have a great website and Facebook page. The owner is a very friendly,funny and knowledgeable guy. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have in planning!

Can you tell me which driver/company you used. We did this itinerary less than two years ago and used RIL and they were great. But don't want to do the tour excursion this time, want something different. So whatever information you can supply on your transportation will be great. I'm going to look at their facebook page right now.

Thanks for any information,

Mary

Sorry, I just reread your question and saw that you were asking about ship sponsored shore excursions. Now ,I'm still going to keep my vote to Cinque Terre but I'm going to back it up with a more specific reasons.We have done three land based trips to Europe and will take our 4th Med cruise this May. Dh and I much prefer DIY excursions. Going into Tuscany is easy to do on your own or with a driver and you can pick the exact towns that you'd like to visit. After San Gimignano we stopped in a beautiful winery, had a wine tasting/lesson from the owner and lunch made by his mother! It was just for the four of us and pretty inexpensive! Delicious and fantastic!!Doing this type of excursion on your own is easy,cheaper,and so much more personalized. Cinque Terre, although possible, is a little harder to do on your own,especially since you really want to approach the towns by boat,which the cruise excursions usually do.

So… although both choices are going to give you a really wonderful day I would still pick the ship excursion to Cinque Terre since it's a little harder to plan on your own and it's an amazing experience ! Then I would start planning my next trip back and my DIY to exactly where I wanted to go in Tuscany!

This is the type of trip we hope to do. Could you tell us if you rented a car or were able to hire a driver for the day? Sounds like the perfect day.

We have friends who have never traveled outside of the U.S. - No where. They took one cruise 12 years ago - not happy. But they really want to visit Italy and Greece. I have just helped them book a cruise on the NCL Jade in October, 2014. Need to make sure everything is set - transportation from airport to hotel (Hotel Papadopoli Venezia - MGallery Collection) this hotel is on the canal in Venice, transportation from hotel to ship; ship to hotel. Not saying money is no object - but need to be sure they can make these transfers without getting upset. They can't use NCL transfers because they purchased air direct through airline -

I have been a cruise critic member for several years; add advice and tours whenever possible; have used hlitner's (Hank - you are getting us around Mexico next month) information for two year; so now we are relying on advice to help two people enjoy cruising as much as us.

Help make this a great and enjoyable trip for two novices!!

Thanks,

Mary

Just returned from cruise that stopped in both places. Honestly, we weren't terribly impressed with La Paz...probably because we took a ship excursion (La Paz City and Artisans) that was dreadful. The malecon looked beautiful (though we didn't stop there) and some friends who live in Loreto said that they enjoy La Paz very much. As for Loreto...it was our favorite stop. Beautiful little town...lots of nice restaurants and shops and a gorgeous waterfront. Went on a panga to Coronados Island...fabulous. Saw hundreds of dolphins and a blue whale surfaced just a few yards from our boat. The water was crystalline but a bit too cold for comfortable snorkeling, but you could wade our a few feet and look down and see fish! I suspect that Cabo was this nice a few years ago.

Did you have a tour for the panga, or did you purchase this tour at the port? We are looking for something like this, but not having much luck, Do you remember how much you paid.

Any information will be greatly appreciated,

Mary

We are traveling Costa Pacifica 3-29 to 4-5

 

We are leaving from Savona

 

Next Marsielles We were thinking of taking a tour thru Costa here

 

Barcelona getting off and using the hop on hop off bus

 

Mallorca ??? Suggestions welcome

 

Rome

We were thinking of doing a tour thru romeinlimo. We have 4 If anyone is interested in joining us happy to have them

 

Florence/Pisa

We are still debating this port. I have been told the only thing to do in Pisa is the leaning tower.

 

We are open to suggestions

You are correct regarding Pisa - we bypassed that area completely, and visited Lucca instead - loved it. We used limo in Rome - Danny was our driver/guide and we had a spectacular day.

Well, just a word to the wise. We have used them four or five times. Before our cruise many people on our roll call were mentioning that they could not hear back from them. On the appointed day for our tour, 2 weeks ago, they did not show up at all. We were left standing on the dock. I finally called after about 45 minutes, got a very rude and arrogant response. In all my various tours over the years I have never had this happen. I will certainly never use them again.

 

My friend on this cruise used another tour operator and loved them. In fact, it was his driver who was kind enough to get Dream Tours on the phone for me.

 

I have never posted a negative recommendation before, but I have never run into this kind of arrogance before, either.

Could you tell us what tour company your friend used. We also used Dream Tours in Oct. 2012 and were just in the process of contacting them, but if there are difficulties this year, we would rather try someone else.

Thanks for any information you can pass along.

Mary

Las Olas Blvd downtown

Carrie B cruises

dining/strolling by the beach

You can park your car at the Galleria Mall for free and walk a block east to the water taxi at Gallery One Hotel.

Can anyone tell us if there are any tour companies that we can contact. When we disembark the ship, we have a 6:00 pm flight home, will want to be at the airport by 4:00, so no car rental for us. Would love to take a tour, but prefer not to go throught the ship. Went to sunny org site, but I didn't see any tours listed. Also, we are a small group of 6.

Thanks for any information.