epixx

Genoa:

We had a long port day and took the train from right near the port to and from Cinque Terre. We loved the day. Our friends took the train to and from Milan.

I MUCH prefer the Eclipse itinerary. I thought Sitka was the best port of the ones visited by either ship, and I love the long port time in Juneau which is sufficient for the Adventure Bound boat trip to Tracey Arm. I also enjoyed Vancouver a lot more than Seattle. We did fly in and out of Seattle but rode the Bolt Bus to and from Vancouver for a grand total of $100 for four people.

Here is what someone else posted on the Ports of Call Italy board:

Our ship (HAL Koningsdam) docked at 7am and we had Expedited Disembarkation, so we were called at 7.15, and sitting in the car provided by Stefano's RomeCabs by 7.45.

We were at FCO terminal 3 by 9am. It was a Sunday morning (May holiday sunday) and there was very little traffic.

Thank you so much everyone. This is probably my only trip to Alaska so it’s Go Big or Go Home!

If this is your only trip and you really want to Go Big, consider either changing the date of your cruisetour or switching from a southbound to a northbound trip that will get you to Denali after June 1. End of May is shoulder season for the Tundra Wilderness Tour, which does not go its full distance into the Park at that time. If you do consider the Shuttle (goes further than Tundra Wilderness Tour and is cheaper, per frugaltravel's post), then you are far better off arriving after June 1, when the Shuttle goes its full distance and the Eielson Visitor Center opens.

The entire Ramblas is safe /quote]

 

except when the terrorists are out and about:

 

 

https://nytimes.com/2017/08/17/world/europe/barcelona-catalunya-van.html

Would these be separate tickets?

Is your arrival at your destination time-sensitive? For example, are you trying to catch a cruise?

Where is the flight from Rome going? Somewhere else in Europe?

Are there subsequent flights the same day to your destination? What would be your backup plan if you miss the 1145 flight from Rome?

Yes; you certainly can fly out of Athens at 0600, but answers to the above questions will help determine whether or not this is a good decision.

This may make more sense for us....Wondering which of those cruise lines that offer this option have good on board shows...

If your priority is for good shows and round trip from Vancouver, I recommend Disney. The Disney Wonder will sail round trip from Vancouver in 2019.

We enjoy outdoor activities and are going in December.

1) Melbourne 3 days, Queenstown 1.5 days, followed by Auckland to Sydney cruise 13 days with 9 port days (Tauranga overnight, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, New Plymouth, Nelson, Kaikoura, Akaroa, Port Chalmers) and one day Fjordland Cruising, then Sydney 4 days.

2) Melbourne 4 days, Queenstown 2.5 days, Rotorua 2 days, Auckland 1 day followed by Auckland to Sydney cruise 10 days with 5 port days (Tauranga, Wellington, Picton, Akaroa, Port Chalmers) and one day Fjordland Cruising, then Sydney 2 days.

Flights to Melbourne and from Sydney cannot be changed. Which itinerary is better?

My favorites were Homer, Sitka, and Kodiak, in that order, but every one of them was good.

We did this in June and were in Bar Harbor before 1000 by taking the first tender. We were given an arbitrary (?) code that determined the order in which we appeared for Immigration, which could have some impact. Nevertheless, it appeared to us that most people were in no hurry to get to the tenders, so I suspect you would have no difficulty arriving by 1000.

Try Turkish Airlines. Flights cost less that $800 per person in May, which is hardly "exhorbitant [sic]."

These flights are one stop (Istanbul) multicity from Miami, if you can depart from that airport.

Our party of 4 are on board Oosterdam 4 August 2018 and have used 'crusingexcursions.com' for all our shore days, considerably cheaper & guarantee to return to ship on time.

I hope you checked the reviews of that company before you booked. Good luck.

I do not understand the 'prestigious' business or why it matters.

I believe this was a clue to the name of the travel agency.

It sounds like a great trip - can you tell us how you enjoyed the Maasdam?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

I love the Maasdam! We have sailed the Amsterdam, Ryndam, and Nieuw Amsterdam in the past, and I definitely prefer the older ships rather than the Nieuw Amsterdam. The Maasdam was in excellent condition, and the passengers seemed to be generally younger in age than on most of the other HAL cruises we have taken. Our cabin (549) was the best and largest we've ever had, thanks to some insiders' tips posted on CruiseCritic. Food was very good. Gym facility was excellent, with plenty of new equipment. For us, HAL's major limitation is the entertainment, or lack thereof, but the library on the older ships makes up (a lot) for this.

Wonderful way to see the ports if you have great weather and don't have any mobility issues.

I agree about the weather. We were extremely fortunate but had a backup plan for each port if the weather were not conducive to biking.

We, a family of two adults and one 24 year old, sailed the 23 June 2018 eight day Montreal to Boston itinerary and turned it into a "Bike and Boat" trip. Here's how, for anyone who likes to bike.

Against our usual practice and realizing that we might need to catch the ship at the next port (Quebec City), we flew to Montreal the morning of embarkation on 23 June. We therefore did not plan biking for Quebec City. Our research did reveal that HAL offers a Montmorency Falls Bike tour at $99 USD pp, and that one can purchase the same tour directly from the vendor at $66.97 CAD (http://www.toursvoirquebec.com/en/tours/bike-tour-to-the-montmorency-falls/). Instead of biking, we did our own walking tour of Quebec City. Oh, and our flight to Montreal was uneventful.

Charlottetown, PEI. There's a great bike "rails to trails" bike path here, the Confederation Trail (https://tourismpei.com/pei-confederation-trail)! From the port, we walked to MacQueen's Bike shop (https://macqueens.com), which is located about 20 minutes from the dock. We highly recommend renting bikes here, as they were clearly of the highest quality and had a huge inventory of many types of bikes. One of us rented a superb carbon fiber bike, another rented a fantastic hybrid bike, and the third rented an excellent e-bike. Note that they do not accept reservations. The shop is very well located only a short distance from access to the lovely and uncrowded Confederation Trail, which we followed in one direction and then return for approximately 4 hours.

Sydney, NS. Here we rented bikes from Framework Cycle, which did accept reservations with no deposit or obligation (http://frameworkfitness.com/category/bike-rentals/) and was located about a 10 minute walk from the dock. Our bikes, two hybrids and one e-bike, were very high quality, although not quite the same caliber as those of the previous day. Unfortunately, the Sydney area lacks very good, low traffic biking routes, so we ended up cycling along Route 28 near the coast, as this road offers a narrow sidewalk that was largely unused by pedestrians and follows a scenic coastal route. The road, itself, had a moderate amount of traffic with speed limits as high as 80 km per hour. We rode as far as the sidewalk was present and then turned around and came back.

Halifax, NS. This was a great biking port. We rented one cruiser bike, one hybrid bike, and one e-bike from I Heart Bikes (http://iheartbikeshfx.com), which required full, nonrefundable payment for a reservation and was located about a 10 minute walk from the cruise dock. We decided to reserve because their selection was limited, especially for e-bikes (total of 2). Fortunately, the weather cooperated beautifully! These bikes were not nearly the same quality as the bikes in Sydney or Charlottetown, but they actually served the purpose very well for our plans. From the bike shop, we cycled on wide, low traffic roads to the beautiful Victoria Park, which contained numerous scenic, wide, uncrowded trails for bikes and pedestrians. We then followed wide streets through the city to visit the Public Gardens, which can only be accessed on foot. We then continued on through the city to the Farmers Market and then finally returned the bikes to the bike shop. The bike shop owners were extremely helpful in planning our routes through the city to minimize traffic.

Bar Harbor, ME. The best was last! We reserved bikes from Bar Harbor's Acadia Bike (https://www.acadiabike.com/), which allows reservations with a $25 USD reservation fee that is refundable until noon the day before rental. Acadia Bike, located about a 10 minutes walk from the tender dock, offers hybrid, mountain, and comfort style bikes, but no e-bikes, as the latter are not allowed on carriage roads in Acadia National Park. All of selected hybrid types which were of reasonable quality. From the shop, we biked one block to the Village Green, where we caught the free Bicycle Express Shuttle to Acadia National Park. The carriage roads in Acadia are wide, amazingly uncrowded, and gorgeous. From the shuttle drop off, we explored the trails in a generally circular, counterclockwise direction and returned to Bar Harbor via the shuttle that departed from the same location where we were dropped off. Note that one could have biked just about half of the distance as a unidirectional route, as the shuttle also picked up at the opposite end of the circular route. We were on HAL's first tender to Bar Harbor and enjoyed the day so much that we returned to the ship on they last tender.

Overall, this was a fantastic DIY "Bike and Boat" trip, and I would highly recommend it to cycling enthusiasts.

We took taxi I think it was about 40 Euros 4 years ago ago.

Ouch! That was quite a ripoff. The fare should be no more than 25 euros:

https://www.piraeusporttaxi.com/

Thank you for all the suggestions. Yes; there are too many fun activities in Queenstown for our time allotment, so we'll just have to prioritize.

By the way, the plan for the 2 day Great Ocean Road/Phillips Island tour is to have the younger folks stay in the backpackers' hostel, while the parents pay for the upgrade to the motel!

We will visit these cities with our two twenty somethings who love outdoor adventures. Arrival in Melbourne is Monday (3 Dec), and cruise departs from Auckland 13 Dec.

My initial plan is this:

3 Dec arrival in Melbourne, visit Victoria Market

4 Dec (not sure)

5-6 Dec two day Great Ocean Road and Phillips Island tour (returns to Melbourne at midnight)

7 Dec early morning flight to Queenstown (choices are 0615 or 0945.. these are the only nonstops)

8 and 9 Dec many activities to choose, including hiking, biking, Dart River funyaks

10 Dec flight to Auckland in the afternoon (might be able to squeeze in a morning activity in Queenstown before departure)

11-12 Dec two day tour from Auckland to Rotorua, including Waitomo Caves, Agrodome, Te Puia, Mitai Maori night experience, Rotorua Redwoods Treewalk, Hobbiton, and return to Auckland

13 Dec Ferry to Waiheke Island for biking; board ship in late afternoon for 2000 departure

Questions:

1. In Melbourne, I would have preferred to do the two day GOR/Phillips Island tour from Tuesday to Wednesday (due to early flight on Friday), but none of the companies seem to offer this. Do you think it would be better to go on two separate tours from Melbourne (i.e., Phillips Island on Tuesday night and a one day GOR tour on Thursday), or is the two day tour significantly superior?

2. Do you think we have enough time in Queenstown? If not, we could forgo the two day tour from Auckland and fly from Queenstown to Auckland on 12 Dec. That would give us from 7-12 December in Queenstown. We will not be renting a car, but there are numerous interesting excursions here. For Rotorua, we would then just do a shore excursion from Tauranga to Te Puia and skip the other activities.

Thanks.

 

I wonder if anyone ever gets a written outline/contract with FlightEase. I know I never have, but it is occurring to me now that there should be something in writing about how it all works. You do get a Cruise Contract with your cruise booking, so why not the same for FlightEase? Sheeesh!

It's IN the cruise contract, and, to summarize, their only responsibility is to refund the air cost under certain circumstances:

https://hollandamerica.com/en_US/legal-privacy/cruise-contract.html

Here:

D. Liability and Relationship With Airlines: We will use our best efforts to arrange for Your air transportation. If, however, due to any cause beyond our control, we are unable to arrange for air transportation (including, for example, because of capacity controls placed upon us by airlines due to the types of fares under which we book) or the air transportation we arrange is unavailable or otherwise fails to materialize, our sole liability will be limited to refunding the air add-on paid or cruise only credit. Our relationship with airlines is that of an independent travel agent. We assume no liability for any acts or omissions of any airline including, without limitation, those involving cancellation of flights, schedule changes, re-routings, damage to or delay or loss of baggage, flight delays, equipment failures, accidents, pilot or other staff shortages, overbooking or computer errors. Accordingly, You will not have any right to claim or recover against us as a consequence of any act or omission of any airline. The liabilities and obligations of an airline to You, and Your rights against an airline, are subject to any and all terms and conditions of the airline's ticket and tariffs and any and all governmental laws and regulations bearing upon or otherwise relating to such rights, liabilities and obligations.

EZ Air does include a guarantee, what they don’t guarantee is the timing of how long it may take....but they will guarantee to get you to the ship, or home.

 

https://www.princess.com/plan/ezair/

EZ Air cannot guarantee they will get you to the ship, and they do not make this claim. Please see the "fine print" here:

https://princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/travel_transportation_faq/popup/PC_PC_ezair.html

For example, the new itinerary might require a passport that that traveler does not possess, or the new itinerary might be a violation of the PVSA.

HAL: Iberian Peninsula.... Dover to Brugges, A Coruna, Porto, Lisbon, Cadiz (for Seville), Gibraltar, Motril (for Granada), and Barcelona

Any cruise line: Holy Land.... Rome to Athens, Santorini, Haifa (4 nights), Naples, Rome

Does your time frame fit within the United Airlines Business Class fare to Sydney ($4441 pp rt from PHL)? If so, then you could add a domestic flight from Sydney to Brisbane.

https://flights.united.com/en-us/business-sale-to-sydney

The 3D experience at the Baths of Caracalla was a bit of a let-down. I have to say that I enjoyed my previous visit more just using the standard audioguide (which is quite good) and my own favorite Rome guide, the Oxford Archaeological Guide to Rome. But then, I may perhaps be more experienced in looking at ruins and envisioning how they once looked than some. :cool:

 

We did the virtual reality at the Domus Aurea last summer and enjoyed it quite a lot. However, I doubt that we are nearly as adept at envisioning the ruins as you are, so you might also find this a bit disappointing.

You will get a myriad of answers here, but I prefer the HAL 14 day Great Alaska Explorer, which I have done twice. The "cannot miss excursion" is the Peterson Bay Natural History Tour with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.