oceanswimmer

There is a very nice farmer's market in Hilo on Saturday -- lots of very exotic fruits and flowers.    Also, there is a really nice botanical garden north of Hilo - Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.   

Another vote for rash shirts - I now wear a bikini top with a rash shirt over top and even went to wearing skirted swim leggings.    I really don't like slathering sunscreen all over myself yet I am very fair as well and don't want to burn.   I find them very comfortable - you don't feel like you're baking in the sun.      I don't think this is much of an issue in Hawaii but rash shirts and leggings also protect against jellyfish stings which was a problem when snorkeling in Costa Rica.

The first cruise we ever took was the Florida / Bahamas cruise on the GEM 13 years ago.   My daughter is a high functioning autistic person and at the time was 13 years old.   We wanted to let her and her brother have a little freedom so we let them sit separately from us in the auditorium during the evening show.    She was supposed to meet us at a certain spot after the show but wasn't there so I started to desperately search for her.   We couldn't find her and I was really starting to panic and asked one of the officers to help us -- he suggested that I check our cabin while he looked for her on the ship.   As I went into the cabin the phone was ringing and he had found her.    He was so wonderful about it -- he was so incredibly kind to her.    He then went out of his way for the entire rest of the trip to say hello to her when he saw her.    It made me think the world of NCL and their crew.

Have to agree with everyone who says to avoid Times Square -- I live north of NYC and visit it a few times a year and I cannot understand why people like Times Square.    Some of my favorite places are Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral (go inside -- it's beautiful), the Metropolitan Museum, and Grand Central Station (also incredibly beautiful inside -- there is also a really nice market inside).     But as everyone says -- leave a LOT of time to get back to the ship.   There are times when the traffic congestion is so bad you will not move for over an hour.

Just want to relay our experiences with buying leis -- the first time in Hawaii my husband bought me one at the Turtle bay resort (gardenia) and it was expensive and Wonderful!!!    The 2nd time we went to Hawaii I wanted to get our kids leis but didn't want to spend a lot of money so we picked up two at a Walmart -- they were in plastic clamshell boxes.   Unfortunately once we opened them we found out that they reeked of mashed potatoes --- it was really disappointing.   They were horrid.

How much time do you have in port? We typically use excursions that are not through the ship and have never had a problem. If you do decide to take an excursion I would take the excursion first and do the town of Kotor last. You can easily walk from the old part of Kotor to the port.

My two sisters and I were in Kotor off of NCL in Sept. The day we were there there was the maximum number of cruise ships allowed in port -- we had to take a tender in from quite a distance. We had only planned on going into the village but as literally thousands of people descended upon Kotor we decided that perhaps we should hire a driver and try to see something in addition to Kotor. As you exit the port area there were a lot of men with signs offering to drive people around -- I went up to one and though I could tell he desperately wanted the fare I also realized that he didn't speak any English which was going to make travelling with him difficult. At the end of this long line of men there was a young man looking to be a driver. We quizzed him about his driving habits (we like very safe drivers) and he turned out to be a really nice kid (he's about 21 yrs old and a college student in the maritime school on scholarship). He said he would take us to Perast and we could spend an hour there and then back to Kotor (total trip about 2 hrs) for 40 Euros. His father does driving for a living and his son was obviously well schooled in how to drive customers around. We decided to take the trip with him and it turned out to be one of the highlights of our cruise. He drives his father's Mercedes station wagon which was in very good shape. He was an excellent driver -- very careful of pedestrians, cats, and bicyclists. He was also very considerate -- he would pull over to show us the great vistas,etc. On the single road to Perast all the traffic was stopped because of a terrible accident. We got out of the car for about 20 mins and realized it wasn't going to be moving for a long time. So we asked him where else could he take us? He said how about Budva? So off we went to Budva! His English was very good and it was a lot of fun to talk to him about his country,etc. When we finally ended up back in Kotor (which is a small but very very charming place) we gave him 60 Euros to which he protested saying that we were paying him too much! We insisted saying that each of us had kids in college and he had to take it. I asked him if he would like me to post his email on cruisecritic so others could contact him and he said that that would be great. He is a college student so I'm sure there will be times he can't do any driving but he does do driving through the summers. We can't recommend him highly enough -- slow cautious driver who was very considerate (when we were first getting on in Kotor he asked if we would like to use the restroom and took us to the local mall because it was much nicer than the public restrooms). His name is Pajo Bracanovic and his email is PBRACANOVIC@GMAIL.COM. The only concern I have is that the email address he wrote down did have a little slash across the top of one of the letters because it was slavic so I'm hoping this email address will work.

I have always found bingo to be pretty fun so I played it twice on one of our cruises with NCL but when I realized how expensive it was to play and how crummy the payouts were I quit playing. It's not fun when you feel like you're being ripped off. NCL needs to be a little more fair with the payouts before I'd play again.

It's clear that NCL is trying to squeeze more money out of people by raising prices above the UBP limits. The problem is that these hugely inflated prices also hit the people who don't want to take the UBP for one reason or another. When I went on my first NCL cruise I thought the drink prices were very reasonable -- they were between $6 - $8.50 which I thought was a very fair price. At the current prices I'm suspecting I won't drink much at all --- I don't mind paying for the drinks but no one likes to feel like the prices they are being charged are way out of line.

It may be a cliche but we did a gondola ride 5 years ago - it was my husband and 2 kids (15 and 19) at the time and we loved it. We did not prebook but rather walked away from St.Mark's square (a few blocks) and found a gondolier and asked how much -- he said it was 80 Euros for 45 minutes. I even remember his name -- Ricky. He was extremely nice and told us some of the history of the houses we were passing by in the back canal (Casanova's house was one) and then we went out onto the Grand Canal. I found it all rather fascinating -- in the back canals there were some mini traffic jams and it was interesting how they maneuvered the boats. As you go by the houses you'll see small boats behind iron gates like floating garages underneath the houses. It really is one of my favorite memories from our trip. It's just an entirely different perspective of the city -- it feels like you're really part of this amazing world.

Thanks everyone! I'll check out those tours. Do you think doing Volterra and San Gimignano would be a good combo? I've been to Pisa and thought the field of Miracles was beautiful but my two sisters have not though I don't think I would want to spend a lot of time there. I am concerned about the crowds in Florence -- I went to Florence on a shore excursion 5 years ago and we spent all our time in line for the Uffizi which in hindsight was a mistake. The museum was literally mobbed so you could hardly walk and, because we had spend so much time there, we never did see the other sights of Florence. I am quite conflicted over what to do -- it's so hard to get a feel for a place reading guide books,etc. I think the best advice comes from people here on cruise critic who have actually been there.

Hi, my two sisters and I are going to be in Livorno in Sept on a cruise ship and we cannot seem to make up our minds what villages to see and I was hoping people who have been there could tell us which were their favorite places and why they liked it. The choices seem to be Siena, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Volterra, San Gimignano. Our roll call is not very active so we may end up taking a private excursion so cost is a factor. I'm thinking we would go to two villages with possibly a wine stop along the way. Any ideas or suggestions?

We did a gondola ride when we were in Venice for the day about 5 years ago and we loved it! I wish I could tell you where we picked it up but we were pretty most lost at that point. We were a few blocks from St.Mark's square and we just asked a gondolier how much and he said 80 for 30 minutes (which I had read was a fair price). We were in one of the back channels -- I thought it was an amazing experience. You see Venice from a different vantage point --- we floated by homes where there were boats parked in the water underneath the building with iron gates locking them in. It was so quiet and serene. We went by Casanova's house and the gondolier asked if we would like to go out to the Grand Canal and we said yes. We saw the Ponte Vecchio from the middle of the Grand Canal. It's one of my fondest memories of our trip. I'm going back to Venice this fall and am planning on doing it again hopefully.

Hi euro cruiser, I was wondering about what will "sell" to other people too if we want to see if we can make a shared excursion work somehow. Your feedback is very useful on trying to decide what to do.

Everybody's feedback has been so helpful -- I am literally amazed at how much there is to see and do.

Do you recall how long a drive it is from the Livorno port to go to Tivoli? I have seen a number of private shore excursions that list it but after cruisemom42 mentioned distance I looked at a map and it does look pretty far away.

I can't believe how many fantastic choices there are to see -- talk about a wealth of riches. It makes me want to do a vacation and just stay near Rome to see all of these sites.

Boy, you guys have been a wealth of information! This has been incredibly helpful.

Wow -- I'd really like to thank you all for such great information. The more I learn of these places the more amazing they seem. The photos of Ostia are just astounding - I had no idea it was such an extensive place! Tarquinia sounds really really interesting as well. I've been googling these different places but you guys gave me better information than the hour I spent googling. We plan on doing a private shared shore excursion if possible. I've done a number of private shore excursions but have never tried to start a shared excursion -- hopefully that will work out.

Thanks again!

Thanks so much for the feedback. I think we might want to organize a shared tour so, of course, that makes it a little more difficult because I'm not sure what will appeal to other people. We're going to see Pompeii (which totally thrills me) so I'm thinking Ostica might be too similar. Tarquina sounds pretty interesting. If Tivoli is a long drive that certainly would be a detriment to doing that. Thanks for all the food for thought1

Hi, my sisters and I are going on a cruise that includes a stop in Citavvecchia and are trying to come up with a shore excursion that doesn't include the standard sites like the Coliseum, Vatican,etc. We've been to Rome before and have seen those sites so would like to do something else.

I would like to see the catacombs but haven't seen a shore excursion that includes them. I was thinking of Tivoli and Hadrian's estate but was wondering if anyone had done those as shore excursions and did they like them?

We're really open to just about anything -- I've also seen a shore excursion to Ostia Antica which seemed interesting as well.

Any ideas are more than welcome --- thanks in advance!

Our port was Messina and we also hired a driver and went up to Taormina and then onto the village above Taormina (I think it was Castleomina?). It was a really nice drive -- our driver stopped at some overlooks and the views were spectacular. The village of Taormina was rather fun -- very lively spot with lots of little shops. I went to the theater --- I think I was the only one there. My husband and kids went shopping. It was a really nice day overall and I'm glad we went.

I went to the perfumery store in St.George's and bought my 18 yr old son a sampler gift of colognes made from flowers grown in Bermuda and gave it to him for Christmas. He likes cologne and absolutely loved the gift. The sampler contains a set of vials arranged in a flat tin box with a hinged lid. It really was extremely nice -- I think it was around $34. They also make a sampler of perfumes. It's really a lovely gift and it's about as Bermudian as you can get.

Hi, I can totally sympathize with your husband --- I love to snorkel and I don't wish any harm to sharks but I have no desire to see one live and in person either. Last year we rented a boat from Somerset and I asked the local young man working there about sharks and he said with all of the scuba diving and fishing he and his father have done for decades they had never seen a shark. That made me feel better.

We also rented from Somerset last June when we went to Bermuda. They were great to deal with. There were 4 of us and I thought the Boston Whaler looked a little small so we rented one size up which was the pontoon boat. None of us are seasoned boaters but we had no trouble at all. My 18 yr old son loved driving the boat -- I think it was his favorite thing we did in Bermuda. The people at Somerset were just wonderful to deal with -- can't recommend them highly enough.

I agree with many of your observations. Personally I really think that all of the mainstream cruise lines are working their employees too hard. I thought many of them weren't all that friendly but I got the impression that they were exhausted. I would see the same people working at 7am and then see them working at 8pm. I actually felt bad for them.

We just got off the Summit and your son was outstanding! He is extremely talented! One day I walked into the coffee area to get a coffee and it was so crowded with people standing everywhere it shocked me. Then I realized your son was performing at the piano and I thought "ahhh --- that explains the crowd". I also spoke with him briefly and he seemed like a great kid -- you did good, :-)