cruise_alot123

Thank you again for all the details. It sounds like the exact thing we will do!!:):)

 

You're welcome. Anyway, this is how you can tell if you are almost arrive at Sunnmore when taking the bus. Although the bus ride is about 10 to 15 mins from the pier and when you see the University campus on your left when riding the bus then the bus cross the very short length bridge and you'll be arriving at Sunnmore in seconds. The bus stop is right in front at Sunnmore and when we were there last week, only a few people there so you'll have the whole place by yourself. Bring a hat if you plan to walk back to the ship because no shady areas to walk and the sun is very strong. As I said earlier, we start walking from the ship around 1 PM for about 40 mins and my wife said lets take the bus and we hop on any bus and only took 5 mins to get there. We spent about an hour there and start walking back about 2:30 or 2:45 pm and back to the pier around 4 PM. It's a long walk but you get to see the neighborhood and with all the food we ate from the ship, it balances out perfectly. Have fun....

Thanks, that is much better!!

 

One more note I'd like to add. There are more buses running let say if you walk on the street parallel to the pier and catch the bus to Sunnmore. Do ask the bus driver if he goes there first and I think the buses run every 15 mins when we were there last week. If you are catching the bus back instead of walking back like we do, just go to the opposite side where the bus drop you off and catch the bus from there. I don't think there's a bus stop on the opposite side of Sunnmore but we saw people got off the bus and also confirmed by the bus driver this is how you catch the bus. Lol...

 

When we were in Alesund, the first thing we did is walk up Mt. Alask then walk to the light house. Back to the ship for lunch then head to Sunnmore because my wife wanted to go. Gotta make the wife hapy right? Lol...You'll like Alesund it's beautiful.....

Thanks for the information. But is it really $10 USD to ride a bus?

 

The 82 NOK was for 2 people so is 5 each. As I said, you can walk there after you get the ship, head to the direction toward the highway but you cannot walk on the hwy of course so you need to walk parallel along the hwy and you can get there in an hour or so.

Our ship docks in Alesund this July, and we're thinking of either hiking Sugartop Mountain (Sukkertoppen) or going to the Sunnmore open air museum. We found a lot of info from @I-Cruiser and others online suggesting public buses 618 and 624 can take us there, but the links no longer work, and google searches do not pull anything up for Alesund public bus routes. Are there still public buses in Alesund? How do I find the routes and timetables?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

We were there last week from the HAL Rotterdam and yes you can the bus 618 from the port and it takes about 10 minutes to get to the Sunmore museum. The HO HO bus also goes there. You can also walk there and is 5 km and we walked halfway and took the bus for the rest of the way since we got tired from walking up Mt. Alsaka early in the morning. Our 5 minutes bus ride cost 82 NOK and the bus takes credit card. We walked back to the ship in about an hour from Sunnmore but there's not a whole lot to see at Sunnmore.

I always have to look good "dress nicely" going to a sit down dinner. As for gala night, always put on a suit because it make you look stand out and of course, you can always wear jean and sneakers for gala night too does that make you comfortable when you are surrounded with people with suit and ties?

I’m taking my 18 year old grandson with me. Will he be able to play bingo or the slots onboard. Just wondering

 

 

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The best is not even get him started....

Hi,

 

I am taking a fjords cruise on the Norwegian Jade in mid July docking at Geiranger, Hellesylt, Trondheim, Leknes,Tromso,Honningsvag, Alesund and Bergen.

 

At which of these towns do you believe taking a cruise excursion (as opposed to just walking around the town/village) would be an absolute must? Any general suggestions would also be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you in advance for you help

 

We are sailing on May 19th and this is what we've booked so far directly:

 

1) Fjord cruise Lysefjord & Pulpit Rock in Stavanger

2) Flåm - Myrdal round trip In Flam

3) The North Cape Tour

4) Highlight Dalsnibba/Skywalk Bus. tour in Geiranger

Bergen: DIY: Plan to hike to Mt. Floyen from the dock and just explore the beautiful city.

Alesund: DIY: Plan to hike the 418 steps to Mt. Aksla for the beautiful view.....

 

Trondheim: Plan to visit old town, Bakklandet.

hi, we will be in Stavanger on May 8 (next week!). I think we may be the only cruise ship in port that day. Rodne has tours scheduled at 10am and 2pm. Would like to book on arrival and choose time or maybe even do the rib boat tour depending on the weather. Even if raining we will want to take a boat tour so don’t want to miss out. Advice appreciated.

 

We booked the 10 AM tour in advance online for the HAL Rotterdam arrival on 5/21/2018. Not only they give the confirmation but also a map on how to get their boat dock. Very efficient so I suggest that you go ahead and book in advance so you don't have to stay in line. It also gives you more time to explore Stavanger or spending more time at Lido cafe....If you do the tour at 10, you get more time in the afternoon vs. doing at 2 pm.

It may not be the case here, but I've seen trouble from folks who haven't yet

switched mentality from "newest, shiniest Microsoft- or Apple-only" features to

impress their instructor, to "lowest common denominator" features to grab the

widest possible user base.

 

The bottom line is people are afraid to learn new stuff and as you said, old mentality = I like to hang on with my analog TV because it still works. Yes, many people still hang on to their analog TVs. Live the life people, put the old hardware in the recycle bin or take it to the county recycle center. Do spend the $$$ to better your life because one should "never never" be frustrated or have sh/e blood raise for simply print a document.

 

Enjoy your life!!

There's another solution to this is to use Microsoft's snipping tool and most office PC has this tool. All you have to do is click on the left side MS icon and you'll see a scissor picture icon and use that to snip out your document and copy to your word document then print. I don't think you guys have the right hardware so it's time for an upgrade.

No need to fuss or raise your blood pressure about printing anything on the HAL's website. The EZ solution is if you can't print, ask your friends or someone you know and have them print it for you. Most people have no problems printing and if you are having problems then something is wrong with your browser setting, it could be the popup, use Chrome instead of Explore and etc..If all else fails, clear all your cookies, history and that still doesn't work, get a new PC with at least Core I7 because if you can't print a basic document, your PC is old. I don't why know people get all upset for such a simple solution and raise the blood for what? I just think you guys are just having too much free time even responding to such topic that's nothing to do with cruising. It'd be more interesting if the topic is about interesting cruising ports or tours that can help people decide what to see and do in ports. Wasting 80 + pages of discussions for a printing issue? Wow, if I were an MOD here, I'd derailed this thread. Period.....

We are travelling on the Sapphire Princess in June to the Norwegian Fiords and one of the the stops is Honningsvag from where we can take a tour up to the North Cape. Considering using this company for a 3.5 hour tour from the port. Has anyone used this company and how was it? It costs 680NOK per person.

Would you recommend the company as reliable and is the tour worth the time and money?

Hope someone can help.

If there is another company that you have used for a similar tour please let me know .

Thanks

 

 

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We just booked this tour for the May 27th arrival in NorthCape from HAL Rotterdam. The itinerary looks pretty good and price reasonable.

Anyone knows if they have a lot of buses to North cape or you need to pre-book bus tour to North Cape? I was looking at the website and they do have bus schedules to North cape but you can't pre-booked unless is a North cape tour. We'll be in North cape on May 27th and can you just buy a bus ticket and go to North cape? Are there long lines at the port for buying bus to North Cape?

 

Thanks.

Is there a difference in purchasing the tickets from the official nsb website and from the visitflam website? Visitflam has the tickets on sale earlier than the nsb site, which doesn't have them available until 90 days ahead of the departure date. The price seems to be the same. I'm just wondering if there is any advantage to waiting to purchase from nsb, ie do you get a "real" ticket from visitflam or is it just a voucher or reservation that you have to trade in for a ticket?

 

yes, there's a different between these website because when I tried to buy the round trip from the visitflam website, the round trip fare is only 550 nok per person but most of the time slots are sold out unless you want the very late departure such as 16:50 for the May 22nd arrival date. We will not make it back to the ship on time with this late departure. However, I ended up paying two single trips for 390 nok each or 780 nok for the round trip departing at 13:35 and returning 14:43 even through I did clicked round trip using the nsb.no website. The nsb.no allows you to buy two single tickets even though these tickets were not available on the visitflam website. I did have to pay 230 nok more for the same tickets using nsb.no instead of visitflam website. Regardless, these tickets are still cheaper than the same cruise excursion. The question is why are these tickets available on the nsb.no but not on the visitflam website? Btw, you don't get a real ticket just a receipt with a code that you need when you go exchange your ticket at the Flam station.

One more thing I'd like to add for the Flam rail purchase, the website does not show you the round trip button so you need to click on the "Time" on the right side for it to show then click the round trip. I don't why they make it hard for you to find the round trip button????

Hello,

 

We are sailing on May 19th Rotterdam and we just bought train tickets online directly for the May 22nd Flam Rail round trip. If you are not joining the cruise excurision, you have to buy them quick because a lot of them are sold out. Here is the website that I used nsb.no The cost is 390 NOK one way or 780 round trip which is about $ 100.28 in USD plus your credit card company is going to charge you 3% fee which is still cheaper than the cruise EXC. The time slots between 9: AM to 11:30 AM are sold out so here is a sample print on my tickets.

 

Flåm - Myrdal

22. May 2018 13:35 - 14:31 - 2 Adults, Flåm railway (390,-)780,-Myrdal - Flåm

22. May 2018 14:43 - 15:40 - 2 Adults, Flåm railway (390,-)780,-

Do not buy a one way ticket and thinking of riding the bike down to Flam because the bike rental does not open until June 1st unless you want to walk 13 Km from Myrdal back to Flam. Also, you need the code on your receipt to pick the ticket(s) at the Flam station. Now, before you go online to buy using a credit card, you need to call your credit company ahead and tell them noted in your account that you plan to use the card to make purchases in Norway. Otherwise, you get calls from the credit company for security frauds. This is a tender in so make sure you have plenty of time and plan accordingly. We have been on 30+ cruises so pretty much do our own EXC. We also booked the 12 noon MOUNTAIN HIGHLIGHT DALSNIBBA/SKYWALK BUS for the Geiranger port and this one only has two time slots: 9 AM or 12 Noon. This is also a tender in port so you may not want the 9 AM since the arrival time is 8 AM. I am still doing home work for other ports and we plan to stay in Amsterdam for 2 days pre-cruise.

 

Tony

Get ready to rock n roll. Last time we cruised to Bermuda in May we got 70 knot winds and 25 ft waves. Only 9 people showed up in the dinning room because most people got sick and one young girl vomited at the table. The seas' always rough to Bermuda especially on the way back to NY.

I was on the same cruise and lets face the reality, the Earth is not always round and we did have rough seas with 40 knot winds and 20 foot waves on the Thursday that we left Nassau back to New York. Just because the OP reviewed that the ship is almost a 5 star and to me, nothing even come close to a star if you included all the extra costs and the super slow service in the Manhattan room, and many more which I’ve already described in my earlier posts. Sure, people only want good things in life or in this case only want to hear a good review about the cruise so when it's your turn to go, you’ll feel good about it. The true is not everything is positive or fine and dandy starting with the smoky filled casino that could easily choked the casino staffs to death in a slow motion. I can’t believe all cruise lines still allow smoking and this is to show you how much they care about their staffs. The street is always two ways just like airplanes that go up must come down. You can’t always look at thing one sided or only accept the good things in life because all things are created equal and must be balanced out.

 

 

 

Btw, my neighbor’s kids are well behave and they never play on my lawn and if they do, I just have their parents foot the bill to re-seed my lawn :D :evilsmile:.

You gotta be kidding? Years ago when you go on a NCL cruise, everything is included and now everything is a la cart. Sure, you pay about the same fare today for a balcony as 20 years ago, however, even adjusted with inflation and when you add in the a la cart for:

 

1) Hot tubs in the Spa $220 a week.

2) Vibe beach $ 80 a week. Why do they section off here and make you pay 80 bucks when you already paid for your full cruise fare in thousands? Why do you have to pay again for sunbath?

Why do they let 15 kids in the hot tubs even thought some hot tubs said adults only? Do they care about you? Nope!!

3) Services are getting worst by day since they introduced included gratuities because there are no incentives for the staffs to work hard. Example, how come there are no pool towels at the H2O? I have to go to my room to get the pool towels and I paid thousands for this cruise?

4) When did the captain's party become a sale pitch? I don't think I go on a cruise to listen when I need to make my next deposits? What happen to the day when the captain and his staffs chit chat with the passengers? Oh...you have to pay $ 3000 more to be in the Haven so you can chat with the captain?

5) You also have to pay 10 bucks to tour the galley? What? It used to be free so now you have to pay?

6) Where' the arts and crafts? Sure, they have it. It's call a pay only water painting class. It used to be free.

7) Lets talk about some basic sushi. They used to have sushi in the Garden buffets now is call a la cart. ka- ching ka-ching...Can you hear $$$ now?

 

I am tire of listings and even adjusted with inflation with your cruise fare, the a la cart examples here can easily outweighed inflation by hundred of %%%%.

I am always amazed at how different perceptions can be on the same cruise. We were on this cruise also.

 

This was not a 1 star cruise and anyone who couldn't wait to get off probably should consider a different type of vacation. It also was not a 5 star either.

 

I never saw "bad" service but did see meals take an unreasonable amount of time. 2 hours is not reasonable. My guess, less staffing for cost cutting. Our Room Steward had 15 rooms to cover. It used to be 10. Entertainment really did lean towards some type of sales pitch or extra cost. This was mostly during the day like spa treatments, shoe inserts, vitamins, detox cleanse, bingo, card tournaments, art auctions etc. etc. Again, revenue. You have to adapt. We found things to do but entertainment w/o a sales pitch was a bit lacking. Which brings to the main point...

 

Consider the fact....I paid less for a Mini Suite with open bar last week than I would have 20 years ago for just an Ocean View and no Open Bar (on a tiny Carnival ship). And that doesn't even count inflation. I got my moneys worth.

 

You can't compare Celebrity to NCL. Two different products. One markets to Adults/Couples and one to Families and Young Adults.

 

Disembarkation was terrible. Of course someone had to be first off the ship and maybe if you were in the Haven but please don't make it sound like it was a smooth process. The rest of us took longer. We were off at 1100. We had Orange tags.

 

GSC tendering back to the ship after 2P does include 45 minutes to an hour standing under the blazing sun. And no, its not a nice warm enjoyable experience. NCL should add to its covered area for this line.

 

Andychris. Vibe was sold out. We asked right after getting on the ship. Of course it seemed empty all week long. I know this as one of the "hidden" areas we found not to be crowded was the tiny bar, top deck forward, at the entrance to Vibe. Never crowded and bar service was immediate. We had to go over stairs that look down into Vibe and I never saw more than a dozen people and sometimes zero. I only saw 4 people go in that door as I was sitting by it. They did not offer day passes. Two other uncrowded areas were the very front of the ship on top (no bar service close) and H2O.

 

2 hours for a meal in the MDR tends to not work for planning the rest of the night. If you arrived exactly at 5 when opened that puts you done by 7. You will have a tough time getting a seat at the Atrium or some of the other shows. We usually left right after finishing the main course and skipped desert. Margaritaville was quick but Oshehans took up to 2 hours. Buffet of course was also quick. Try and be done by 630 or so. The food in the MDR was good enough we didn't feel we wanted to try the other pay restaurants but I do know they can speed up your meal if needed. If you want copies of the dailies or menus go to Beyondships.com, click on NCL Breakaway and they have links to what you are looking for. Most are recent 2017.

 

There's every reason to be a 1 star and even you said it here:

 

1)

Our Room Steward had 15 rooms to cover. It used to be 10.

Also, they never get to wash our balcony when we were in port.

2)

GSC tendering back to the ship after 2P does include 45 minutes to an hour standing under the blazing sun

Why do they make you wait for 45 mins under the hot sun? Why can they have more tenders running? Seniors can't be waiting under the hot sun for 45 mins.

3)

If you arrived exactly at 5 when opened that puts you done by 7.

Wonder how many go to the Manhattan room to eat @ 5 PM? Not many...It's ridiculous to wait for 45 mins for just the appetizers and 2 hrs for a complete meal is way too long. They also short changed in the escargots because in the past, you get 6 escargots in a buttery and garlic dish by itself now all you get is 2 or 3 escargots mixed with mushrooms wedged in some kind puff pastry. So they are replacing escargots with mushrooms and it was awful.

4)

Oshehans took up to 2 hours

Two hour wait for chicken wings, classic burgers or jumbo dogs are not acceptable. Period.....

 

Why can they make the ship non smoking?

 

Try walk the waterfront and smokers are everywhere especially toward the Fat Cat bar near the front of the ship. There's my 1 star.

for some reason I am having a little trouble accepting all yo are saying you experienced and here is why: 1-did you measure the glass sticking out of the kids foot and do you have any idea how long 2 inches is? Twice we have experienced accidents on an : both times they went out of their way to help. Second, you went to the Asian restaurant for dinner: did you not realize it is now a noodle bar? You say there was nothing to do: actually it would take 2 BA cruises to do all there is to do. This is just a start to question some of the statements you have made about BA. We also never heard or saw any kids running up and down the hall ways, and we had them in the cabin right next door.

BTW: we missed you at the M&G. We thought, since you signed up you would be there. Hope you enjoy your next cruise. We have cruised, like you over 30 times but certainly didn't experience the negative cruise you just did. Debarkation a nightmare, yep, I would agree 100%.

 

I know how long 2 inch is because I was there when the young boy got hurt and yes, it was a 2 inch glass sticking out at the bottom of his right foot and he can only lay on the lounge chair since he couldn't put his foot down and they can't pull the 2 inch glass out because blood would be gushing out like the flow of lava. They need a doctor there to remove it and do some stitching right the way and the doc never showed up. You can verify this by calling the NCL medical office.

 

Sorry about missing the M&G.

I forgot to mention a young kid about 4 or 5 years old got hurt really badly on the morning that we almost arrived in Port Canaveral. He stepped on a piece of glass on the upper deck above the pool and blood was everywhere and he had a 2 inch glass stick out on his right foot and the poor kid just laying there on the lounge chair crying nonstop for 20 minutes while the security officer keep talking back and forth on the walkie talkie and the doctor never showed up. They finally decided to carry the kid with the lounge chair inside to seek help. Where the hell is the doctor for the last 20 minutes? Was s/he still sleeping? You know it doesn't take 20 minutes for the doc to show up from deck 4? The trail of blood from the kid was about 10 feet long, I mean it was a lot of blood. You'd think they'd contain that area by putting something there to secure so no one can walk by, instead, people kept walking in that area and some stepped on the blood as they walked pass the area. They finally use bleach to clean the area. Be careful out there......,

Wow...it was that bad??? Somehow I can't imagine it was that bad for everyone on that cruise. I've been on 2 NCL ships and rarely had any complaints. Of course I do not have 30 cruises under my belt........so maybe if I did I might be making some comparisons....which rarely ends well and can make you miserable. Sorry you had such a terrible time.

 

Try a Celebrity cruise and you'll notice a big different. On the Breakaway, they'll charge you for the water painting class and it used to be free. On Celebrity, scrap book and all arts and crafts classes are free and the cruise fares between NCL and Celebrity are almost the same for the Caribbean cruise. Another example is in the past NCL captain's party, the captain and managers will stick around and chit chat with the passengers and they also have raffles drawings. Now, as soon as they introduced the captain and managers, they get the hell out of there ASAP and the sale pitch guy comes in and all he talks about is your next deposits. We left the party ASAP.

 

Another example is in the past, they use to have juggling and magic for the kids and also a comedy show. Now, zippo, nothing, nada....If you want to see comedy mixed with circus? You have to pay 47 bucks. This is a free show in Celebrity although the circus may not be that extensive but if you have to pay for everything on the cruise, why do you pay 3,600 for a mini suite? Go figure!!

We were on the same cruise and if I have to rate it, it will only be 1 star and here is why?

 

1) We went to the main dinning room (Manhattan) on the first night and never went back for the rest of the cruise because it took 45 minutes for the appetizers to arrive and you have to spent 2 hours for a complete dinner which is way too long for us.

 

2) We went to GSC at around 1 PM and we left at around 4 PM, we have to wait for 40 minutes for the tender in the hot sun to get back on the ship. At first they only have one tender and the line was mile long then they open a second tender after people complaining loudly.

 

3) We had a mini suite mid-ship and the balcony is so small that you can't even stretch you legs.

 

4) Nobody is controlling the kids and they were running and talking loud on their way back to the cabins after mid night and disturbing everybody's sleep.

 

5) Disembarkation was a disaster because we got off the elevator mid-ship deck 7 @ 7:15, the line was all the way to the Manhattan dinning room from the front of the ship. The line kept growing longer and longer and they ran out of space in the dinning room so they sent people out to the waterfront. We did not get out the pier until 8:50 AM.

 

6) They pretty much have the same two people (Arvin and Emily) singing at the Atrium night after night.

 

7) The saddest thing is that they allowed kids sitting on the casino floor and let them watch their parents gambling and inhale all those cigarettes.

 

8) We went to the captain's party and all they talk about is your next deposits but they do provide you some free drinks mostly wines.

 

9) On the last day of the cruise, they show videos of the all the staffs saying thank you unlike the past, all staffs come out and thank you in person and also sing the song "We are The World" and now, you have the cruise director Dan Dan sing a couple songs and they call that "Dan Dan Session Jam".

 

We've been on 30+ cruises and I don't think I'd ever go on another NCL cruise again. NCL just taking too many short cuts and I couldn't find a piece of cheese cake in the entire cruise. The pool is way too crowded and the hot tubs are full of kids sometimes there were 15 kids in one hot tub. If you want to use the hot tub in the spa, it'll cost you $220 a week.

 

As for food, We waited for 40 minutes to try out the Shanghai restaurant and the food was no good. They give you beeper while you wait and the beeper works only for deck 6,7, and 8.

 

The only good thing is they have a different theme at the garden buffet every night so for example:

 

When we were in Nassau, the buffet is caribbean night so you get Jerk chickens etc...

 

You have Italian night, Asian night (they serve you roasted ducks), and on the last day is Grill night.

 

The bottom line is we couldn't wait to get off the ship because there ain't a whole lot to do unless you like to drink a lot and hang around the bar all the time.

Just off the Breakaway yesterday and they do have a reserved area for the Haven at GSC. However, it just a bunch of beach chairs no umbrellas and nothing more than that. The area for the Haven is super sunny hardly any shade so it's better to find some chairs under the trees. We got to the beach around 1:00 PM and there were lots of empty chairs at the Haven area and I don't think anyone is enforcing or people don't like to sit where there's no shade. So you can pretty much sit there if you want and the beach was never crowded. We left the beach around 4ish and the line was mile long to catch the tender and we waited for 40 mins to get on the tender.