Flowrider

You did not mention which cruise in October you will be on. If it happens to be the transatlantic one, then keep in mind that all aft cabins will not get any sun on this voyage. If however you will ever take a spring transatlantic, then they are the best catch, just not on this voyage.

Other disadvantages of aft balconies for some poeple are the constant noise of the water and the occasional soot on the balcony floor. On this ship, the balcony is also not very private from above.

I would stick with what you have.

we had an aft cabin on the equinox last november in a ta, and we had sun in our balcony during the mornings on the crossing, and the water noise wasnt a problem when the door was closed, and we found it very pleasing to hear the sound of the water along with the view of the wake. you will be seen if you are in the rail, if you are seated by the door, you wont be seen from above. there was some soot in the mornings but we wiped it off the chairs and table with a towel and the deck was cleaned with water every morning. we loved the aft cabin.

we were in the same tours as biggerboat47, still sorry they had to cancel.

all the tours we took in cartagena, malaga, cadiz, lisbon and tenerife were great.

small groups, the buses were always of higher capacity so we had a confortable ride, the guides are very friendly and knowledgable.

as soon as we were off the ship,mthe guides and buses were waiting for us, in cartagena we were able to start our tour 30 min earlier because the ship arrived early and they were waiting for us. they are very promt and punctual and returned us to the ship always on time. one thing i liked is they would always start the tour by visiting the farthest place and leave the closest place to the port last, this was very helpful in lisbon because there was a demonstration innthe city center near the port that eventhough was peaceful, it created a lot of traffic, our tour guide saw this and took us around it and back to the ship on time. it was at the end of our tour.

another thing i really liked was that eventhough they gave us some time for souvenier shopping in each port, we wernt taken to the tipical tourist trap stores where they leave you for 1 hr almost forcing you to buy something. the tour guides were flexible and asked us if we wanted more or less time for sovenier shopping.

and also the price, comaperd to the ships tours, ours were about 40% cheaper.

i trully have no negative remarks, all was very good and wont hesitate to book with them again in the future, they are from now on my first choice in tour companies.

lazaro

hello,

we just finished a transatlantic cruise that stoped in cartagena, malaga, cadiz, lisbon and tenerife, we were on the celebrity equinox nov 25th.

in all the ports, we did the tours with spaindaytours/topdaytours, and are extremely happy we did and recomend them 100%. here are the reasons i can give you:

1. we had small groups of 12 instead of the 50 of the ships tours, in most ports spainday had 4-6 groups and they kept the groups small, 10-12. they could have joined 2 groups together since we had buses of 26 persons and they kept their word and kept the groups small making the drive confortable and the tours much more personal. in some ports we had buses of 16, and in others buses of 26 or something like that.

in the cadiz to seville and the malaga to alhambra tour, we were 50 persons per bus but split into 3 small groups for the actual tours, again very confortable buses and personal tours.

2. the guides were very profesional and very knowledgable about the places we were visiting, they gave us a lot of history and current information. you could see they loved their job and wernt just working for tips.

3. they were very punctual, they were waiting for us as soon as we got off the ship, actually they arrived even before the arranged time because in a couple of ports, the ship arrived a little earlier and we were able to start our tours early and gained about 30 min because they were ready and waiting for us.

in all the ports, we were returned back to the ship with a safe margin. in all the ports,mthey would start the tour visiting the farthest place and then visit the closest places to the port the last to ensure we were returned on time. this became important in lisbon as a demonstration broke out in the city center near the port, our guide saw this and went around it and got us back on the ship safely on time. it was a peaceful demostration but did create traffic jams.

4. our time on the tours was spent visiting the important places, with some time for shopping in the various places, but the huge difference was that we were never taken to the tipical tourist trap stores where you are taken like cattle and left for 1 hr or so almost forcing you to buy something.

5. flexibility, our guide would ask us if we wanted time to shop or eat and how much time, so it was our desicion if we wanted to spend time shopping for souveniers or more time visiting places.

6. price, i compared the prices we paid with the ships tours and spaindaytours was about 40% cheaper.

i really liked our tours and wont hesitate to book with them in the future, they will be my firs choice.

dont be scared by the ship when they tell you they wont wait for private tours if they are not back in time, with spaindaytours you wont miss the ship and you will be glad you toured with them.

regarding malaga, it was my favouite tour, the alhambra was spectacular and all the explanations given by the guide and hiis willingness to answer any questions made it even more special. dont miss this place, its a must see.

hope this helps

lazaro

9382 has a wider balcony.

Note that aft balconies are not as deep as those on the sides of the ship.

 

Thankyou so much for all your pictures and information. We are going on a ta this november in 9382, is the balcony totally uncovered? If not about what percentage is covered? How about soot in these cabins?

Thankyou once again for all your help

You could try some Crianza or Cosecha, they are usually light and fruity. If you prefer light wines stay away from the ones from the Toro and Ribera del Duero regions. They tend to be more full bodied.

 

When we were there in July, the lady that worked in the store helped several pasengers. She seemed pretty knowledgeable of the products she was selling. It never hurts to ask.

 

 

 

 

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Thankyou for your advise, learned something new today, thanks:)

Is there someone in that shop that can offer some advice about the wines? We are going in november and we like red wines that are light and on the sweet side but know very little about wines.

Can anyone who has been to that store recomend a brand or brands to look for?

Thankyou

when we sailed in the crown princess in 1990 for our honeymoon we had cptn Romano, when we sailed the grand in 2003 he was the captain also, in 2006 he was also the captain in the caribbean princess and once we had the chance to say hello to him in the horizon court and told him about our past cruises with him. he invited us with our kids for a quick tour of the bridge, it was very nice of him and our kids really enjoyed it. in 2 weeks we will sail in the ruby and i hope i can say hello to him. looks like he will be in the royal, hope to see him again in 2014.

he is by far our favorite captain and i think he is princess top captain since he is given the ships to inagurate, i dont know if all but a lot of them.

We just got back and had a wonderful tour. The price difference with Ramses is not that much more to split into smaller groups which I highly recommend. The sites are crowed, and easier to hear the guide and do more things you really want if your in a smaller group. I can't imagine the museum with that many people. The museum is crowed anyway...and the Tut room is jammed!! We were in a group of two with driver and guide, it was fantastic. Loved Mena House. Go out in the courtyard early morning and take photos of the pyramids. Make sure to bring medicine for "mummy tummy" everyone I knew that spent the night off the ship and ate the food had a little reaction, some more than others.:)

Thanks for the advise, i am hoping that being low season (middle of december) the crowds will be a little less overwhelming. I think we will stick with groups of 12 because since we started the thread about a year and a half ago, we have made and grown a great group of friends with whom i have corresponded with all this time so its going to be fun to travel together sharing this tour. I trust ramses tours will have the knowledge and experience to guide us in a way that we will use the limited time we have in egypt to the fullest. From all of the reviews i read about egypt, i am confident we made the right choice by choosing ramses. I will gladly post my review when i get home after the cruise

I have read a lot of posts saying that they took Ramses tours, but customized them to meet their needs. We are going on the Star Princess in October and are planning to use Ramses. What were highlights of your trip, and what are some things you changed on their tours. We are looking at maybe tour 1 overnight from Alexandria. Any feedback would be appreciated. Also any shopping?:)

We are doing an overnight tour in december with ramses tours and we were able to add sakkarah to our tour, george has been great organizing our tour and reserving our rooms in the mena oberoi. We started getting a group of 12 together and ended up with 45-47 people which we will split into 3 or 4 groups. I believe they offer all the flexibility to make the most of your tour.

Have a great tour, i am confident our group will have the tour of our lives and trust george will deliver.

We did the Ramses Tour, it was the worst tour we have ever been on, we booked the tour as private, so it was only the 2 of us, the guide (a young girl who was very nice, but the worst tour guide ever) took us for a 20 minute walk through the port, then over a bridge, through the post gate and to the street to find our van.

Was not a Ramses van (although there were many in the port area that we had to walk away from) it was some private van, I am hoping the guide was a private one and not an employee of Ramses, because she was bad.

 

She was barely audible on the rare occasions she did speak, I was visibly upset at all the walking we had to do to find the van, she promised there would be no more long walks to find the van, she lied.

 

As mentioned, she had about 2 minutes worth of information about Alexandria, then silence all the way to Cairo (although her and the driver were very chatty, and she took several calls on her celphone, did some texting, and at one point pulled out her laptop to go on facebook.

 

I snapped once we went for lunch, the website stated clearly that lunch would be at the Hard Rock Cafe (not real Egyptian food, but with all the warnings about the food in Egypt we got from the ship we figured it was a great option, we could have some American food and not get sick)

Without any notice, the van pulled up at the Queen Cleopatra restaurant, I refused to eat anything.

Eventually the guide asked me to speak with the company owner on her cel, he asked what was wrong, I explained I was totally unimpressed with the tour, he wanted to make things right, so offered a free day tour of Alexandria the following day (the guide for that tour was fantastic, how I wish he had taken us to the pyramids)

Even the free tour ended up only being a half day tour (to be fair there was not a lot to see in Alexandria, and the guide was fully willing to take us anywhere else we wanted to see).

 

Anyways, the conversation with the owner made for the most uncomfortable 3 hour trip back to port ever.

 

I wonder now though, if I booked this tour in April, why would Ramses treat me as if I booked last minute?

In retrospect, I think a cab ride would have been far cheaper and much more informative.

i am sorry you had a bad tour to cairo, i am surprised to hear about your bad experience, i have been reading very good reviews of ramses for a year and a half, i am going with them in december, we are 3 groups of 15 persons doing an overnight.

2 years ago me and my wife went to turkey, before we took a 12 day tour through various places in western turkey, we took a mini tour with the same company to troy, it was just me and my wife and the guide in his small-medium car. even though the 12 day tour in a 10 person group was great, the troy private tour was boring, kind of what happened to you, we didnt "click" with the guide, my wife was in a bad mood because of the the unconfortable ride, etc. so even though it was the same company, the overall tour was great but that first private tour wasnt. what i am trying to say is that even though a small part wasnt good, it doesnt mean the tour company was bad. in my case i would certainly recomend the tour company we took in turkey but would warn others on doing a private mini tour to troy, i would state it would be better to visit troy as a quick stop.

trying to use my turkey experience in your case, i think that in tours, specially in countries like egypt and turkey, you have to expect some unexpected bumps, for example if the port is full and you have to do a little walking to the van or car, that is the luck of the draw, it could have happened to any other company.

the restaurant issue, if you didnt specify you wanted to go to the hard rock, the company isnt at fault to take you to another place similar in quality, others have posted good reviews about the queen cleopatra restaurant.

as for the guide, maybe she noticed you were angry about the walk and felt you wanted your "space" on your ride to cairo. this happened to us in our mini tour to troy. I think guides will interact with pasengers in different ways, with people who ask more questions they will be more open and talkative, maybe the guide felt you didnt want to be talked to on the ride. then again maybe you had a bad guide, every company has one i guess. if that was the case, i think it would have been better to state that x guide in the company is not recomended and not that the company as a whole is not recomended.

finally if the company gave you as compensation a free tour of alexandria, i think it shows that they do care and treated you good in overall terms. not all companies would be willing to give you another tour free as compensation for not liking the guide in another tour. try asking the ships tour salesperson you want a free tour in your next stop because you werent satisffied with a tour you took, you will be laughed at.

as all in life "ship" happens, and you have to take the good with the bad, it sound to me that the first walking part and the restaurant thing kept you from enjoying the rest of the tour. i would be this upset if i had missed seing the sphinx, or the museum, or something like that.

again, o am sorry you didnt enjoy your tour of cairo, its a shame because for many of us that stop was the highlight of the entire cruise. i just feel its unfair that you bash the company entirely because of one guide.

jmho

hi, can anyone tell me how the le meridien pyramids hotel is in terms of cleanliness, bed confort, food quality in the restaurants, and if they have a covered pool and/or sauna? we also booked with ramses for our dec 5th 2010 cruise, we will be doing an overnight tour with another 9 fellow cruisers, if anyone wants to join us there is still room on our tour.

Hi, we are doing an overnight tour with ramses in december 2010 and we are staying in le meridien pyramids hotel, can anyone who has stayed in this hotel tell me if there is a covered pool and sauna, it would be great after the days tour.

thank you