cwuer

I used this company back in October for Myan Ruins and Cenote tour. They were absolutely fantastic. I was skeptical due to lack of reviews, but there was no need. Husband and wife team that pay attention to every little detail. I took lots of pictures and I highly recommend.You can email if you want to see pics, cindy.word@comcast.net.

Sorry I should have put the full name of the company

Yucatan Cenote Eco - Aventuras

Hi there. I have tried doing a search for this info but came up with nothing. This is a new company (approx. 1 year old) that does tours from this port. Below is the website. They have good reviews on TA, but only 5 of them. Their tours look good and they are reasonably priced. I am just a little apprehensive to book with them due to their lack of reviews. Has anyone here ever heard of this company and have any info you could share. Thank you

Here is link to the company

http://www.yucatancenote.com

H5 Courtyard penthouse suite # 15126 is the one with the largest sq feet on the Getaway It has 349 instead of 328. If deck plans are identical it would follow for Breakaway.

I have sailed on Silversea, but never on Cunard. I am looking for someone that has sailed on any of the luxury lines and also in the Grill suites section of Cunard to do a comparison. I realize the difference in what is included in the price, I am looking for a comparison of the overall experience and ambiance of this line as compared to the luxury lines. Thank you for any insight you can offer.

Another factor to consider, as we had the same debate, is the train leaves at 6:40am but you need to be checked in at 5:40am. Train takes 5 hrs vs. car takes 3 and you can leave whatever time you wish. I would have liked to do the train ride, but for us time and sleep was a factor, and we will be taking the train in Skagway for an excursion, so we ended up deciding the car would be a better option in our situation.

Train takes 4 hours not 5. And yes you do have to check in early BUT..... it does not feel early! Remember you fall back 3 hours (or so we did from Central time) so while it is 5:45 am in your mind it is only 8:45 am. I am NOT a morning person and hate getting up early. I almost did not do the train just for the reason of having to get up so early. It was no problem even though we got to Anchorage late an did not get to bed until after midnight. The train was a highlight of the trip. It is spectacular and I is first day so you are excited with anticipation. you will not regret it. Totally awesome!

it was a highlight of our trip! All of us agree from 20 year old girls, 24 year old son to husband and I. Absolutely beautiful, You can walk all over that train so you don't get board. Make sure you go up to the dome cars. you can get buy one get one free coupons on ebay They come out of a coupon book. I paid $5.00 for coupon and it saved me $160 on 2 tickets. only use one per booking so made 2 bookings. Would always take the train if I return.

I just called in to inquire about the policy as I am sailing on HA this coming Sunday. I was told this is all the buzz in the office right now and the new policy will not start taking affect until Jan, 2014.

Anni, first of all I would just like to say thank you for this great thread and all the help you offer others coming to this port. it is a lengthy thread and I have read through it so hope I did not miss the answer to my question, but if so please accept my apologies. I have seen a lot of info about how to see this port, and local area or towns within 1-2 hours on a do it yourself basis, train schedules, ferry, etc. What I have not seen is if there is a tour company or reliable limo or driver than can take a party of 4 on a day or half day sight seeing excursion with free time included. Do you know of any reliable companies or private drivers that can pick up a party of 4 at the pier and do a half day or day excursion? thank you very much for any help you can give

Maybe it's just that darn British humor (or is it humour :))

I never do get it! :confused:

No flames here. Hope you feel better now that you have it off your chest. We always pay more than 15% BTW.

Wish there were a "Like" button for this comment! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! :p

I'm sorry that you were, insulted and shafted by yourg guide. Lots of guides have religious/political agendas here, but that guy sounds like he walked to the end of the block and turned the corner as a gal I knew from LA used to day.

 

The Dome in fact is only open to tourists on and off, and can be closed to them in the blink of an eye if certain events start up.

Actually the guide was not that young, I'd say he was in his late 40's. As for the Dome being closed I would have believed him except so many others on our ship that went on tours with other companies were able to go to it, so I knew then he had not told the truth. That was something we really did want to do as well. I am sure there are other guides with this company that are fantastic and this guide was certainly very knowledgeable. There were many other issues, just takes too long to list them all and brings back such bad memories. This was a year ago and I am only just now writing about it, and only because I saw this thread in my emai with someone asking for guide recommendation from this company.

I can't tell you what guide to request, but I can certainly tell you who to avoid if you are a Christian. If you are Jewish he would probably be just fine, but our guide was very prejudiced against Christians and had our whole bus in an uproar with the inflammatory things he said about Jesus. This was even AFTER he asked if we were Jewish or Christian. I just could not believe he would say such things to a group of Christians. I kept asking him to please just give us the tour we had paid for and stop sharing his opinions with us, but he seemed to enjoy pushing peoples buttons. Our group was scheduled to do the Haifa trip the next day and about 8 people dropped off the tour because they were so upset with him. At one point in the day there was even a shouting match and 2 demanded to be taken back to the bus. It ruined our whole experience and I would never use him again. His name was Michael or Michele (not sure how to spell it) If you book with this company and you are a Christian I would certainly ask Alon to send you a different guide unless you enjoy hearing that Jesus was just a common man born to a prostitute, etc. etc. etc. I was on vacation and wanted to see Jerusalem from the perspective of all 3 religions, not be a captive audience to someone else's religions ranting. Also they will not take you to the Dome of the Rock. He will tell you it is closed (but it was not) I think for religious reason Jews do not go up there, which I have no problem with, but I did ask about it prior to our tour and was told we could go there if we asked our guide to take us. I do realize this company comes highly recommended as I did all my research prior to booking with them. I am sure there are many very good guides with this company, but this guide was touted as one of their BEST and was certainly not what we expected.

Just wanted to thank you again for the advice. Most in my group have decided to just do the day trip in Jerusalem, but a family of 4 is hell bent on floating in that Dead Sea! So.... I have arranged for them to have that experience with Guided tours of Israel. They would be happy to have a few others share the cost, but I think will still do it even if they can't find others that are brave enough to do them both. I am just so grateful to you for the insight you gave to me and I know the information is invaluable.

I am so sorry that I repeated myself. I do not know how I missed the reply. I have been doing research non-stop for weeks now and I just did not remember this. I think I read it but thought you were responding to the poster that said she was in port only until about 6pm. Again, I apologize for asking the same thing twice and I doubly thank you :)

Been reading over this thread. Thank you so much for all the info you are giving to us. Like one of the poster's above some in my group want to cram in Jerusalem city with the dead sea. Our hours in port are a little longer 9am to 10pm. Does that help at all, or not as the daylight hours are still limited (don't know what time it gets dark there in June.)Our ship (Azamara) does not even do an excursion to the dead sea. But I have found a company that says they can do both in one day. The family that wants to do this are all in good health, ages 40's and 2 young adults. Do you think this is advisable? thanks again.

What valuable information you have just given me. Yes, I think from reading that, that to do both would mean really cutting Jerusalem short, and I do want to soak up a little of the "feel" of the city, and be able to stop to eat street food and watch any interesting locals I might encounter. People watching is always enjoyable! I know an overnight would be much better but I am traveling with a family of 5 ( 3 children 21, 17, and 17) so adding overnights really adds up. We do dock at Haifa the next day so theoretically could go back down there and pick up dead sea the next day as a day trip, but that would mean leaving off Nazareth, Galilee, and other places that are so meaningful to Christians as part of Jesus' ministry, so I hate giving that up! I suppose floating in the Dead Sea will have to wait, but it sure does sound fun! Thanks again, you are a blessing to this board!

Thank you so much for your willingness to share your vast body of knowledge with us. I want to ask you if you think it is advisable to visit jerusalem in the morning, then the dead sea that afternoon or is that too much for one day? I will be in Ashdod on a cruise in June on a Sunday June 6th from 9am to 10pm, and would like to do both, but don't know if this is advisable. I am with a group of 10-18 depending on if all choose the same shore excursion. We are all in reasonably good shape and most under 50 years of age. thank you very much.

Can someone else verify that you are permitted to "turn down" an upgrade on a guarantee cabin? Not sure about this? thanks so much

Really? I did not know that. I thought if you took an inside guarantee you had to take whatever they offered you as long as it was in that catagory or HIGHER. So I could turn down an "upgrade" to one of the smaller obstructed outside cabins?

Hi Cwuer !

 

. I believe you are asking if you book an Inside GTY, what the odds are, that you will do better. I'd say there is always a chance, but I wouldn't bet the house on it. Even if all of the insides are currently sold out, Azamara might choose to wait it out until final payment or beyond, to see if there are any cancellations.

 

Hey Andy, thanks for your reply. Actually I am not really hoping for any upgrade. I am almost afraid of it LOL. I am fine to keep an inside guarantee. What I don't really want is to be "upgraded" to one of the lowest cat. outside cabins with the obstructed view, because they are SMALLER than the inside cabins and the other outside cabins. I don't know how Azamara considers them a higher cat. since they are fully obstructed and smaller (145 sq. feet instead of 158.) But maybe I would never notice them being smaller. Of course if they upgraded above that level to an unobstructed oceanview that would be awesome. But I don't really think that would happen. I was just wondering if they typically left assigned rooms alone, or if they have a history of upgrading assigned rooms to better rooms. The outside cabins have been sold out for a good while as there are so few on the ship, so they gotta put the guarantees somewhere:rolleyes:

Does anyone have experience with how Azamara generally handles guarantess. Specifically, here is my question. If one were booked on a inside cabin guarantee catagory and all the inside cabins are sold out, would they generally be upgraded to the first available outside cabin catagory, OR would folks with assigned cabins in higher cat. inside or lowest cat. outside but moved from assigned rooms to higher catagory rooms and the guarantee take those spots? I know there is no way to know for sure, I am just wondering if anyone here has been in this situation and how did it work out for them. Just wondering if they generally leave folks along that have an assigned room and slot the guarantees in where there is an opening, or if they move assigned folks up to better rooms and slot the guarantees in there? Thanks for any help.

PS I know it is best to book the specific cabin you will be happy in whenever possible and there are no guarantees with a guarantee.:)