Barwick Cruiser

Great info, thank you. Sorry for the confusion, we depart Amsterdam May 24 but don’t get to Copenhagen until Jun 3/4. I’m assuming the taxi option to Nyhavn would be faster than bus/metro combo but more expensive? Especially for four adults? Do your taxis charge by the trip or per person?

We’ll be on Silhouette end of May for an overnight in Copenhagen. How difficult will it be for four able bodied adults to reach Nyhavn? We arrive at 11am and are interested in doing the canal tour…is this like a HOHO boat? Are we ok with public transit or should we taxi/uber? TIA Cathy

That sounds like a wonderful itinerary…and long! How many days is it?

I’m so glad that the weather for the fjords is cooperating for you! Milford is amazing, the waterfalls should be flowing well! We did the fjords a few years ago on Solstice and we also did the slow shedding of outer layers as the day went on. By the time we reached Milford we were on our balcony in tshirts! Thanks for taking us along, loving the pics and details! 🥂 Cathy

Looking forward to following along as well! I’m very much enjoying the current live reviews while anticipating our Baltics cruise in May. Hope you enjoy fair skies and calm seas thru the Pacific and thank you for including all of us on your journey!

Thank you for this review, I’ve enjoyed following along and glad you and your Mom had a good time. Celebrity works for us but I can see that it doesn’t for everyone which is fine…lots of choices for everyone! I appreciate the pics from Cartagena…last time there we did the Dora tour and afterwards headed straight back to the ship. I am determined to check out the Aviary next time I’m there, def would love that, thank you! Hope your Mom feels better soon!

Love the sunset video, you captured it very well! Thanks for the great review!

Just catching up…so glad your snorkeling in Aruba went well. We did the same excursion a few years ago but it was quite windy and the choppy wave action made it uncomfortable for me and the water clarity was poor. We were very surprised they still ran the tour but 🤷‍♀️. Love your postings and so glad you and Mr are having a wonderful holiday!

Sounds like you’re both having a wonderful holiday! I’m contemplating doing an E class sailing but want to avoid Beyond due to the noise issues…have you heard anything on Apex? We can’t do retreat but need an actual balcony so looking for a SV. The entertainment on the E class ships seems to be much better than on the M and S class..🤔 Anyway, enjoy the remaining days and thanks so much for taking time from your vacation to entertain the rest of us! 🥂

So you would cancel your virgin plan and sign up with this one to get the international roaming? 🤔 Never mind, just checked the countries and two of the ones we’re visiting aren’t included…back to more planning lol

And you need to sign up for min 3 months. Expensive if you’re traveling for just a few weeks. 🤷‍♀️

Looking forward to following along also! We just spent a month in NZ visiting family…such a beautiful country with lovely friendly people! A few years ago we did a cruise out of Sydney to NZ…you’ll love the fjords! We also enjoyed a few days pre cruise in Sydney…check out the Blue Mountains..amazing! We haven’t done a E class ship yet so I’m interested in hearing your experience…are you in Retreat or where we usually end up a regular cabin 🙄😅 Have a wonderful holiday! 🥂

I wouldn’t miss this for anything! Both legs have great ports, I’m sure you’ll have a fantastic holiday! 🥂from 🇨🇦 Cathy

Ok, this is good info. Thank you. I’ll make sure my debit card is good to go. I’m assuming credit cards aren’t used widely there due to the fees. May happen here one day too. I personally prefer to pay by cc to accumulate points but that can be tricky for those who don’t pay it off each month. Thank you for your help on these boards…good to get advice from a local!

Good point…fortunately DH and I don’t have that issue and the seat width even with the tray in the armrest is plenty for us…we enjoy stretching our legs out, especially on longer or overnight flights. If we can’t get bulkhead we’ll book opposing aisle seats. I tend to read while he watches movies so not a lot of chitchat going on anyway.

So in grocery stores or restaurants in the Netherlands how do most people pay for their purchases? I thought everyone used credit cards now to avoid handling cash, especially after the pandemic. 🤔

In case you still have a decent selection of seats I’d go for the bulkhead seats if they’re still available so you can have some extra legroom. Easier to get in and out without the aisle passenger having to also stand up. For the overnight flight I try to put my backpack on the floor in front of me and have a leg rest. Of course for takeoff and landing you’ll need to stow it in the bins but nice for stretching out a bit. Enjoy your cruise, sounds like lovely ports!

We (two couples) will have five nights in the Netherlands prior to boarding our ship. We weren’t planning to get a data package and will rely on free wifi where avail and using WhatsApp. Will we have any issues using Apple Pay or Google pay in stores for purchases without wifi or data plans? Will tap from our phones work like at home? Sorry if this is a stupid question. We’re not the most tech savvy bunch lol

Finally received my renewed card after much hassle and expense. Hubby and I received approval back in October and were patiently (at first) waiting for our new cards in the mail. We left for a trip to NZ in January and our expired cards worked fine. We absolutely expected our new cards to arrive before we returned home mid Feb however not 🤔. I contacted border services thru the trusted travellers website and they advised that we would need to apply for replacement cards as they couldn’t explain why we never received our cards. So there’s another $25US on top of the initial $50US we’d already spent 😠 I received my new card the next week and activated it easily. Hubby is still having issues trying to get a replacement card…seems to be no link on his account page on the website. He’s in the midst of communications to try and sort this mess. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how both of our initial cards didn’t find our mailbox (yes, checked and rechecked address multiple times) and not wanting to believe it’s some kind of scam to procure more money but 🤷‍♀️. We don’t travel until May so worst case hubby can still use his expired card.

Thank you! Very helpful. Do we need an OV chip card each to use the train or can one person buy tickets for the four of us? We’ll be in the Netherlands for five days prior to the cruise and want to make transit as cheap and easy as possible lol. Last time there our Airbnb host had cards for us preloaded and that we could reload online. Was easy to just tap in and out. We can use our credit cards the same way tho?

Anyone know if Schipol has global entry lines either entering or departing the country?

We have the same AC flight at 12:15 but in June. Our plan is to do walkoff and taxi to Rotterdam Centraal station and take the train to Schipol. 🤞. For our cruise the ship shuttle to Schipol is sold out and I also don’t want to be stuck in traffic. Last time we were in the Netherlands we were amazed at the public transit system there and went everywhere without a rental car…most of the cars were usually stuck in heavy traffic anyway. 🤷‍♀️

We don’t travel until May but at this point we are still planning to walk off the ship with our luggage and take the tram to Centraal station and then the train to Schipol. We disembark on a weekday so the thought of gettting stuck in traffic in an Uber or taxi isn’t appealing, thus the plan for the train option. Since you’ll be travelling before us, maybe you could come on here when you get back and let us know how you all made out? Enjoy your holiday!

In light of the absence of footstools maybe you could ask for the bench or even a stability ball and use that for propping your feet on the balcony? 🤔 😜

Following! Hope you enjoy a wonderful holiday…three more months before we board Silhouette 🛳️🎉🥂