Raison

They are all freezing in Dunedin with 10 degrees and high winds.

Colder than when we were there a couple of weeks ago... we have friends onboard and they have been commenting about the weather being a bit nasty today.

Gosh, that looks very wintery!

Thanks Undertone, great review. I agree with many of your points too. But overall a very enjoyable cruise!

So it seems the Dynamic dining rollercoaster continues, wonder if it will end before we board or if we will find out then. Maybe it will be a nice surprise, or not :)

This is good news, looking forward to trying DD on Ovation!

We will be cruising this area twice in the next couple of years, one ocean cruise and one river cruise plus land based beforehand.

The research has begun!!

We recently booked a cruise on Princess for March 2017. We will be visiting ports in Vietnam. We travel on Australian passports.

Princess have informed us via the Cruise Personaliser about our Vietnam Visa stating this:

"A Vietnam visa is required for most guests on this voyage, including Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and U.S. passport holders. You may either obtain the visa on your own before your cruise, or a visa will be issued upon arrival in Vietnam. If you choose to have the visa issued on board, a passport-size photo or copy of your passport photo page is required, and a visa fee of USD $56.00 per person (USD $76.00 per person for those participating on an overland package) will be charged to your stateroom account.

Some guests, including UK passport holders, do not require a visa; however, they will be charged $1 per person for a landing card and a $1 per person processing fee.

All guests' passports must be valid for at least six months after departing Vietnam and must contain at least one unused page for entry/exit endorsements."

Thanks for asking this question, it has been on my mind too, particularly the dress code. We are also attending the theatre and have a busy sightseeing day planned before, I was wondering if we should head back to our hotel and change, so I know have the answer to the question. Thanks for the replies!

Thanks! I think that site will come in very handy.

Thank you JB, your advice on these forums really is very helpful. I don't post often, but I certainly read the Britain forum a lot as I plan our trip.

We will be disembarking Arcadia in Southampton on Sunday August 21.

We are thinking of hiring a car for 2 days returning it to Heathrow T3 airport on Monday afternoon before our night flight.

From what I can find, it seems the only car rental places open on a Sunday are at the Southampton airport, so we will go there to pick up the car unless anyone has info about car hire pick up nearer the cruise docks.

Our plan is to pick up car and visit Stonehenge and Salisbury on the Sunday and then drive to Bath where we will stay that night.

Monday we plan to look around Bath and aim to be at Heathrow about 5 to 6pm to catch our 9.15 pm flight. I am allowing about 2.5 hours for the drive back to the car rental place at Heathrow, is this enough for a Monday afternoon?

I know it will be a rushed morning and a superficial look at Bath, but my hubby REALLY wants to go there.

Is this initial plan achievable? Any traps or hints for us?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I haven't been able to get on the website at all, it won't load at all at the moment.

Thanks for the info on the combo tour! I will check them out.

We spent a week in Iceland in late May, 2014. My husband is an avid birder, and we saw hundreds of Atlantic puffins in the cliffs of Dyrholaey. They were nesting in the cliffs and flying directly over our heads.

 

We had a rental car, so didn't do any guided tours. But we did our own version of the Golden Circle, spending much less time at the gift shops stops included in those motor coach tours.

 

We also spent two nights at Vik, staying at the Icelandair hotel. When we were there work wasn't quite complete on the hotel, but it should be totally done now and, from what we observed, must be lovely.

Thanks for the info we would definitely spend little to nil time in gift shops. Not my thing at all, although hubby is a bit of a shopper!

Thinking hiring a car may be the only way we get the flexibility we will need for the day. But I am a bit put off by some of the stories I have read about car hire companies and perceived damage to cars in Iceland.

Further research required. :)

Maybe staying overnight near Jokusarlon is an option for us too. Will have to look at options for that.

I think I am definitely leaning towards the south coast. I don't know what time we will arrive in port, so it makes planning a little hard. I have been looking at guided tours, but these would only give us either the South Coast or the Golden Circle.

Being less crowded in the South Coast areas sounds good to me!

Definitely puffins in the area around Vik in the first half of August. The lore is that they leave on August 15, but we saw them on the 16th 2 summers ago.

 

Let me know if you want specific info as to where we saw them.

Yes please, I have read about the black sand beach called Dyrholaey being a possible place to see them (on road 218). Where did you see them?

Thanks for the replies. I think we could probably manage both in a day, depending on our arrival time. And assuming we want to spend that much time travelling. We are used to long day trips, but those we are travelling with may not be!

As much as I want to get to the Glacier Lagoon, I think this would be just too much, unless we decided to stay overnight. That also depends on our departure time the next day too.

Our cruise also stops in a few other places, I must see if there might be puffins to view in any of those ports in early August.

Love the planning!

This is a great thread! Have just finished all 26 pages and have learnt heaps.

We will be in Iceland in August 2016 on Arcadia.

We will have overnight in Reykjavik, then Isafjordur, then Akureyri.

A bit torn between doing the Golden Circle or the South Coast, I am really interested in both areas, especially the Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss waterfalls.

What are peoples thoughts on doing both in one day?

Also trying to decide if driving or doing a tour is our best option. We will likely be a group of 6.

Our son recently went to Iceland and he highly recommends Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, but I think I may have to rule it put completely as it appears to be about 4.5 hours one way from Reykjavik.

Any advice on a good place to see puffins?

I enjoy browsing this list each month!

Please add Ovation of the Seas Dec 30 2016, 10 nights NZ cruise for me please.

Just tried, Didn't work for me either:(

They may get a few phonecalls tomorrow, if Sarah said a TA was able to apply it to the booking, I am sure the call centre can.......the $100 will be needed for drinks and all the extras:p

 

Booked the NYE one, thought it was a good price when I checked all the other ships doing NYE from Sydney, thinking back we paid $1600 for 6 nights on QM2 and thought we got a good deal:eek: Put a hold on early this morning, luckily as prices have gone up as the lower cats are unavailable......till tomorrow when all the holds expire!

 

Chez

Hi Chez,

Steve and I booked the NYE cruise too!

Deb

We booked the dec 30 cruise today, 2 new year cruises in a row! Looking forward to both of them. But especially curious about Ovation.

Please add these 2 for Raison:

Voyager of the Seas December 29 2015 -10 nights to New Zealand

Arcadia August 7 2016 - 14 night Iceland Cruise return trip from Southampton

And wasnt it easy once someone took the time to explain it[emoji4]

Use to be so frustrating with hundreds of unread posts from the whole CC boards

Yes it was!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for this info, I have not had the patience to work out how to get to the forum list on Tapatalk, now I know!