azores, hamburg, rotterdam, repo cruise

[10101]

I am sailing on the Grand Princess repo cruise in May, which goes north up the coast of Europe and stops at some lesser known places, like the Azores. Has anyone been on this trip, and stopped at the Azores and done something other than the ship's shore excursions?
I am also looking for ideas for touring in Rotterdam and Hamburg, other than those offered by the ship.

[Flick]

I was just in PonteDelGado in the Azore on a Cunard repo last month. We went on a ship tour because there was no other tour offered. We toured most of the island (beautiful!) but I did not see any other tour companies or taxies around.

Rick,24 cruises and counting! Next cruise- #25-Riverboat cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna in July '04

[Sunmail]

I agree with Rick on the Azores. We went on the ship's tour and then walked around the town on our own. If you are there on a Sunday, most of the shops will be closed. If this is the case, turn to the right once you get to the main street that goes along the water. Down a ways on the left is a great shop that sells good quality stuff made in the Azores. It's on the second floor in a little mall. This is the only place we found to get something local on Sunday.

There was a big parade that day where we really got to see the people and customs of the country. It was probably one of our best cruise stops ever.

Make sure you are up on deck when the ship leaves. The local high school band played for us as we left. They played God Bless America (or some other patriotic song) at the end that almost brought tears to our eyes.

Star Princess, Mediterranean, May 2004
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=111111&cdt=2004;5;16;13;0;00&timezone=GMT+0100[/img]

Star Princess, Mexican Riviera, December 2002
RCL Vision of the Sea, Hawaii, May 2001
Golden Princess, Eastern Caribbean, November 2001
Grand Princess, Transatlantic/Mediterranean, May 2000
NCL Majesty, Bahamas, February 2000
Carnival Tropicale, Western Caribbean, April 1999
Carnival Sensation, Eastern Caribbean, February 1998
Carnival Fantasy, Bahamas, November 1992
Carnival Holiday, Western Caribbean, February 1992

[Bev]

Hi

I've been researching tours in various ports for my family sailing on the Celebrity Galaxy Transatlantic cruise. For the Azores - I have reserved a minibus for a half-day tour to Sete Cidades with Melo Tours for our group of 5. This company offers full and half day tours to Furnas or Sete Cidades similar to the cruise lines. Full day tours with lunch cost 50 Euros (approx. US$63) pp and half-day tours - lunch not included cost 25 Euros (approx. US$31.50) pp. Melo Tours offers a minibus for 8 persons with an English speaking driver/guide – the minibus would be waiting at the Ponta Delgada harbour and return us there. I have been dealing with Carla and Helena – they have been very accommodating and even waived a customary pre-tour deposit. You can check them out at
[url="http://www.melotours.com"]www.melotours.com[/url] [email]carla@melo-lda.pt[/email]; [email]helena@melo-lda.pt[/email]

If you’re interested in Whale Watching, I found the web site of Futurissimo, a company offering 3 hour trips for Dolphin & Whale Watching with daily departures, at 09.30 am and 13.30 pm, for US$70 pp, or US$50 pp if 4 or more family members. [url="http://www.ciberacores.com/futurismo/"]http://www.ciberacores.com/futurismo/[/url]

Bev

[10101]

Bev mentions Melotours in her post. This takes me to a tour company in India. Is there a mistake? I would love to know tour company for the Azores. Thanks.

[Bev]

Oops! Sorry about that. The website is [url="http://www.melotravel.com"]www.melotravel.com[/url]

Bev

[Bev]

Hi

I researched tours for Hamburg when we sailed on NCL's Baltic Capitals cruise. I found the company that conducts NCL's tours there - we weren't able to tour with them because NCL would only disembark passengers that were taking a ship's excursion. (It turned out all right because cruising the Kiel Canal is great too.)

Here's their info:
CONFERENCE & TOURING does the Kiel Canal tours for NCL and we are looking forward to having you as our guests.

Kind regards,

Jörg Ruppel
CONFERENCE & TOURING
Hamburg - Berlin - Munich

Bogenstrasse 54a
20144 Hamburg
Tel: ++49 40 42 91 81 30
Fax: ++49 40 29 83 40 97
e-mail: [email]jr@dmcgermany.de[/email]
Web: [url="http://www.dmcgermany.de"]http://www.dmcgermany.de[/url]

Hope this helps.
Bev

[balzak26]

[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img] hi ! Since im from Portugal and would like to help cruisers that go to Açores and Ponta Delgada, here is the official website of Açores (In English, too!!),where u can find a lot of things like renting a car for 1 day(5 people) for 39 Euros. Dont forget Açores as 9 islands, and most of the whale watching is from Pico Island. And the port of Ponta Delgada is in the island of S. Miguel. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]