Sailmore

We are currently in the Springhill Suites and will be walking to the port tomorrow.  I took a photo from our room window and sent it to a friend.  Her comment was that it looks like we could touch the Celebrity Eclipse, docked in port.  Thanks for the hotel recommendation, we are very comfortable here and are very pleased with our choice.  It is a nice central location and definitely close to the port.  We have walked to Gaslamp quarter, Seaport village and twice to Little Italy.  
I watched the prices and ended up securing a better rate, so a win win!

At that time of year, nothing will be inexpensive, especially post Covid.  There are several hotels within walking distance, such as The Fairmont Waterfront is right across the street ( not necessarily cheaper) but as suggested, probably best to secure the best current deal and keep checking.  
There is talk of eventually opening up a new cruise port, but currently, you are correct, that is where all ships dock.

4 hours ago, disneyochem said:

Our favorite restaurant is Bencotto’s.  
 

We’re cruising out of San Diego during Thanksgiving week as well (Nov 19 on the Koningsdam) but will be coming down that morning from Orange County after staying with family.

 

We are on November 25th Koningsdam.  
2 votes for Bencottos and menu looks good.  Definitely a possibility 👍

4 hours ago, disneyochem said:

Our favorite restaurant is Bencotto’s.  
 

Glad you got the hotel figured out.  We prefer staying the Springhill—especially since we like to arrive in San Diego via Amtrak.  

We’re cruising out of San Diego during Thanksgiving week as well (Nov 19 on the Koningsdam) but will be coming down that morning from Orange County after staying with family.

 

19 hours ago, scottca075 said:

Little Italy is the best neighborhood in San Diego for dining.

 

https://www.littleitalysd.com/dine/restaurants

 

For Italian I like Bencotto, Davanti Enoteca and Civico 1845. For "American" I like Born & Raised, Herb & Wood and Ketner Exchange.

 

For fast casual, Crack Shack (fried chicken from Richard Blaise) and Burger Lounge.

 

For bars, Princess Pub and The Waterfront,SDs oldest bar.

Wow!  Quite a list, my research is cut out for me.  As we arrive late afternoon on  Thanksgiving Day November 23 and only have one other night before boarding, we definitely going to have to narrow down our choices.  Thanks for the suggestions.

Thanks so much for your replies regarding the hotel.  I just booked the Springhill Suites and chose a partial bayview room as we had booked a bay view room at the BW.   It helps with getting a senior's rate, but as it turns out, we are there Thanksgiving weekend, so likely a bit higher rates in general.  It will be $150 more than the BW over the 2 nights, but given that it includes breakfast, which we do prefer, that gap is narrowed.  

We have stayed a couple of times at the Urban Hotel in Little Italy, but my husband said he would like a newer hotel and this is so very close to the port.  We are walkers, so that is great.  It will be easier to walk the extra distance to Little Italy than it would be to walk to the port with luggage from further away.

Speaking of Little Italy, can I ask what your favourite restaurant is?  

Thanks again for suggestions.

Does anyone have recent experience at the Best Western Plus Bayfront.  We have booked there and the negatives we view are the bagged breakfast option only ( although restaurants nearby and we are only there 2 nights precruise) and the age of the hotel.  I booked the BW several months ago and have a top floor Bay view for a lower, but similar price point as available for a basic room at Springhill Suites.  After reading this thread, I am second guessing.  It appears newer and has breakfast and both are very close to port.  Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Another vote for City and Causeway Tours.  We had a long port day, so we tried to do it all.

We pre-booked the Titanic museum to do on our own, and were off the ship shortly after 8, took a taxi and had 8:30 tickets for the museum.  We then had Stevie, from City and Causeway Tours, pick us up at 10:45.

We had a great day with Stevie, driving up the very scenic Antrim coast, part of it along the very narrow, Torr Road.  Thankfully, we were not driving, and no large buses allowed there either.

Overall, our day was fabulous.  We saw lots of the countryside, had a great lunch stop at the Wee Cafe, visited the Giant's Causeway and to top it off, we spent time in Belfast afterwards viewing the murals and the walls in the city depicting the troubles.  

Stevie was very entertaining, personable, a great driver and very passionate about the challenges the people of Belfast have experienced over the years.  We all agreed, this was the number one tour of our very busy itinerary.  As a true test, despite being a long day, no one nodded off along the way!

We are just back from a British Isles cruise, and I thought I would make people aware of an option for Fishguard.  We hired Carrot's Cabs for the day and had Alison drive us around to the various sites. Although they are not an official tour company, it worked well for us and gave us flexibility for the day. 

Will be in manzanillo this may any suggestions on what to do will be appreciated, ty,

 

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We just returned from our cruise and did enjoy a day with Admire Mexico Tours. Eight of us went to Comala, Colima, Hacienda de Nogueras and La Campana ruins. Jupiter picked us up at 8AM in a modern, clean van and he speaks excellent English. One caveat, you should ensure that you have a long port day, as the drive is about 1 1/2 hours each way. He does offer other options, so you could contact his company and enquire if you are interested.

On TripAdvisor, the reviews are found under Comala, Mexico, as that is where he lives.

We are trying to find a reasonable option for putting in time while waiting for our 7:30PM flight out of LAX. We thought renting a car allowed us to not only be able to move around with our luggage and kill some time, but we can drop car at airport, therefore do not need a transfer.

Can anyone suggest a car rental company that has a shuttle from the port for car pick up, or one that is very close to port. We are arriving on a Sunday and the nearby Enterprise office is closed. The decision will depend on cost to get to car rental office and drop fees for leaving car at airport.

Thanks

Hello,

Haven't read much about Prince Rupert on the Alaska boards. :confused:

Or maybe I haven't searched right. Is Prince Rupert also very exciting? The reviews I've mostly read have Victoria in them.

Any info would be much helpful or where I can find a review or so.

Thanks,

Marie

You can try going to the tourism website and they have pictures and ideas of activities. http://www.hellobc. is the official BC tourism site, where you can search Prince Rupert.

It is a small community, so very different from Victoria. Most of the communities on the Alaskan cruise are small, but I think others tend to have souvenir and jewelry stores move in for the season. You might find Prince Rupert a bit more real. We haven't been there for years, but they had some cute shops and restaurants at the waterfront.

When we did the "behind the scenes" tour, the museum admission was included in the tour price.

That would be a bonus. We have booked the backstage tour, on everyones recommendation. Thanks for all the info.

Sounds like it is unanimous. I'm not sure we will ever get back there, so why not? Thanks for the feedback.

Can anyone give me their thoughts of the specific differences between the basic walking tour and the backstage one. I'm trying to decide if the backstage one is worth twice the price. I see that they are sometimes sold out, so I'm thinking of pre-booking online.

Thanks

We recently did a full day tour/shore excursion with Roberto Alarcon. Two highlights of our tour were a visit to the Turtle Release centre and viewing the cliff divers, but what made the day so special was Roberto himself. From my first contact with him via email, he couldn't have been more attentive and despite having to deal with a horrendous day of traffic (due to the bike race noted above), he managed to deliver, as promised, a great tour. When I viewed all the photos Roberto had sent me, I was reminded of the wonderful time we all had. Roberto was waiting for us on arrival, spoke excellent English, had a nice air conditioned van and supplied refreshments and went out of his way to ensure each person in the group was well taken care of. I don't think any of us ever felt the least bit intimidated. Roberto is very proud of his city and I would highly recommend his services should you decide to go on a shore excursion in Acapulco. He will work with you to arrange whatever tour/sights you may wish to see. You can access reviews for him on Tripadvisor.

Thanks. We are Canadian so using a credit card would have foreign exchange fees.

 

Having never been to mexico, and visiting via NCL Jewel ship to Cabo, PV and Mazatlan for one day each, I guess I was more wondering what things cost? People say it's cheap...but in reality what does that translate too. We have to get US dollars of course and this already is a 30% increase....trying to budget. Thanks.

I'm not sure of your exact location, but if you are anywhere near Vancouver or suburbs, you will find several currency exchange locations. I purchased some pesos recently at Kingmart for approx 12 pesos to $1CDN with no additional fees. You can check different locations online to get comparative rates.

For longer stays, I believe ATM's are likely best option, but pre-purchasing pesos allows you to step off ship and go. It does increase costs to do double conversion of Cdn$ to US$ to pesos, which is not ideal these days.

Some ports would have Cdn exchange sites, but I don't think rate is any better. Also, if you do use your credit card, it is best to have it go through as local currency and not convert to CDN $ at time of transaction.

I hope this is helpful.

Make a list of the things that interest you, and give it to a taxi driver. If time permits, you can have a customized tour at a good price. If you get another couple to join you, the price will be better. Be sure you agree on a price before you get into the taxi.

 

Some things that are interesting to us --- Diego Rivera sculpture wall==Cliff divers -- Casa Blanca hotel view deck -- Flamingo hotel where the mivie stars from the 50's hung out --Harbor tour boats (price around 8 dollars). That is just a few, but if you study the brochures of Acapulco, you may find other things you like better. Taxi drivers are very good about waiting for you at the places you stop and/or coming back to get you.

Basically, I had thought that type of tour is what we would do, but I liked the idea of a pre-arranged tour, but with flexibility and comfort of working with a well reviewed company. They have given me a list of many of these options, and will do what we wish and give input as desired.

If you have visited Acapulco recently, do you have any ball park idea of what we might expect cost wise for a taxi? I understand that everything is negotiable and if shared with others, it brings cost down. For an all day tour with English speaking driver/guide, I have been quoted $70US pp if 4-6 people. Again, I realize there are lots of variables, I just thought if we know up front what to expect, I can decide if the convenience of minimal hassles in port is worth the extra $$

Thanks for your thoughts.

Linda

Can anyone give me suggestions for DIY or tours they have done in Acapulco? I have set up a day tour with Tours by Van, but so far no response on our roll call for others to join us. They have good reviews on TripAdvisor, but wondering if there are other easy options that we could do on our own.

I like the idea of a private tour and knowing up front who you are dealing with, but with 2 of us the cost is obviously higher. I'm just trying to weigh out options, and there isn't much available that I can find on this forum. We plan on DIY in all other ports, but without too much available info, I thought a private tour might be a good idea.

I appreciate any thoughts and suggestions. We are pretty open to what we would like to do. Obviously, cliff diving is a popular option, and a general overview of area. The sea turtle adoption excursion also looks like fun.

Thanks,

Linda

Has anyone done the baby sea turtles excursion in Acapulco? It's offered through NCL (maybe other cruise lines too). The Sea Turtle Rescue Center is about an hour's drive from Acapulco and you get to learn about endangered baby sea turtles and have an opportunity to release them into the ocean. I was hoping for some feedback from others who have done this excursion if it's worth the trip out there. Thanks in advance for any insight.

I am interested to hear more about this as well. We will be sailing on NCL Sun Oct 13th, and I'm thinking of organizing an independent tour that would include the turtle release centre as well as cliff divers and whatever other sites we can fill in the day with. If by chance you are on that cruise, I would love to hear from you if this interests you, or even for any other insights you have.

Meanwhile, it is great to get whatever feedback we can regarding the turtles. Sounds like a fun and different option to the normal tours. We are from Vancouver, BC area, just north of you, so we certainly don't have this program on our door steps!

Thanks,

Linda

It would be a shame to miss the opportunity to visit Turkey. The people are wonderful, and other than being a bit over zealous encouraging you to buy their goods, they mostly just want you to have a good experience in their country.

We recently did a land tour of Turkey after previously visiting Ephesus on a cruise. We loved Turkey in general, but especially Cappadocia. We stayed at the Kelebek hotel in Goreme which is affiliated with Heritage Travel. We also did a day tour with them and hot air balloon and one bus trip. They included the airport transfer for us since we did the other things. They were extremely accommodating with late check out and driving us to bus depot and the hotel itself was very unique. Our room had a wonderful balcony looking over the valley and we watched the balloons in the mornings when we weren't up in one.

I set up our flights in Turkey with Turkish airlines directly online, which was quite simple. If a tour company helps you, they will usually charge a small fee, but we found the airlines to be quite good and if booked ahead, can be very cost effective.

Good luck

One more company to try for shared excursions is http://www.shareashoreexcursioninitaly.com.

There is a link on RomeinLimos home page or you can go directly to http://www.romeinlimotoursharing.com/index.php#2

I believe RIL now has a cruise share location that you can go on to try to link up with others

I'll add my thanks. This looks like an excellent guide to follow. Not sure about that lunch menu, but I have to admit it sounds very "special"

Linda