Why Norway has the best cruise ports

 This is my second time cruising Norway and it just gets better each time. I can recommend all the ports I have visited. Below are the ports I have visited. All are easy walking towns.

Oslo 

Lovely harbour. Get the one day tourist card for museums and public transport. Worth the money. Saw four museums and shopping was good. The castle is right where you get off the ship.

Bergen 

Great fish market. Take the vehicular up the mountain. Views are great and go early. Bought the museum pass. Worth the money.

Flamm

Been there twice . Everyone takes the train the first time. I thought it was just ok and expensive. Pre book. The second time I did the easy hike behind the hotel. Pastoral and beautiful views of the ship and fjords.

Make sue your out on the deck for the sail away for at lest an hour. Beautiful scenery.

Maloy

Take the highlights tour as there is nothing to do in town

Alesund 

Clearly my favourite. Take the city train tour. Well worth the money. Great walking city. Scenic and good shopping.

The prices here were comparable to Canada. 

Love Norway and will return

Hope this helps 

Marcia

What to do in Reykjavik the very expensive town

 Reykjavik is really expensive. So here’s what I did to keep costs down.

Do

Take the free city shuttle to from ship. Leaves every 20 minutes from 8 to 9:30 pm. Drop off at the concert hall. 10 minutes to old town or 15 to the church walking.

I did the Elding boat tour to see the puffins, About 70 cdn dollars. Loved it.

Did the whales of Iceland museum. Not worth th $33 cdn dollars. Just rubber life size whales.

Walked to free churches both good. 

Great walk along the seafront from ship if it’s a nice day and your fit as it’s 3 miles. You may see whales. There is a house made of recycled metal and wood. A must see and it’s free. The Viking sculpture and a few stone one are also good.

Not

Shopping is way too expensive as are restaurants. I went to a bakery and grocery and got a pastry and pop for Seven dollars

A beer was 15 dollars.

Look at the clearance sale in the souvenir shops. I got magnets etc for a dollar. 

Hope this helps

Marcia

Greenock Scotland a nice port to visit- suggestions

 Greenock is a somewhat depressed sea town, with a lot of closed shops. I found the people to be lovely and helpful. Don’t miss the esplanade walk. You may see dolphins, seals and swans. Note it’s 3/4 mile to get to the start and then a mile long.  Not much to do here so take the bus or train to Glasgow.

Hope this helps

Marcia

Southampton England only go to get on a ship - never again

 Southampton as far as i am concerned is only good for boarding a ship.  They refer to this city as a bit rough .  I agree totally.

 I stayed at IBIS Southampton city Center. It’s so close to the Horizon terminal 8 minute walk with luggage. Note all I’d the side walks are uneven making it hard to roll your suitcase.  One of my luggage wheel was damaged.

I only recommend the hotel for its proximity to the terminal. The room was clean but no air conditioning and they don’t honour their 2 pm check in.

The old town is tiny with a bit of the old city wall.  At night there are motorcycles gangs and overall it’s a rough area.

I won’t take ships out of this port again. The national express bus was late and they cancelled the return without advising me. 

I took a train to Waterloo station. It was packed and no where for luggage unless it’s snail for the overhead. Than the tube to paddington. Warning you must use your credit or debit card to get in out of the stations. It will cost you more than double if you use cash. I then took th Heathrow express to the airport.

If you can avoid Southampton as your departure port do so.

Hope this helps 

Marcia

Impressions of msc virtuoso - mostly impressed on Northern Europe cruise

 Msc virtuoso is impressive and the bad reviews on trip advisor should be taken as indications of potential problems, not that you will encounter them. Many cruisers on this ship are repeat customers. 

Embarkation was about 30 minutes at Southampton horizon terminal. Easy and painless.

Food so far in the restaurants has been good and varied.  Had to queue to get a set table and time. Do this on day 1 if your table is unassigned or you want to change the time. There is a desk set up outside of the blue Danube restaurant.

Cabin an ocean view is small and clean.  The window is much larger than all the other ships I have been on. I had to clean the inside with a Clorox wipe and they seldom clean the outside. When they do it’s still spotted.

Internet didn’t work but after another queue day 1 and a password change it worked. So far it’s been working fine. Note when it goes down you need to re sign in.  It’s down in the fjords of Iceland and Norway.

To sign up for the specialty carousel shows times is another queue on day 2 morning.  You then pick the days and times. For all other shows just go to the electronic boards and pick your shows dates and times.  You can also go ten minutes before the show and just walk in if there is room.

The first paid show in the carousel lounge was a mini cirque de soleil show. Some guests rave about it. However if you have seen the Las Vegas shows this is just a taste. In my opinion they should not charge extra for it. You get a free drink pre made .

All other shows have been good but they added shows so you had to rebook again.

Greenock was lovely. The people are nice and the esplanade walk of a mile long was the best part.

Ayafyordur is in the northern fjords of Iceland. It’s a pretty town. Walk up to the avalanche line or higher for great views.  Take the first tender as msc only uses two for this port. You may not get off unless you early. Note Msc has the absolute worse security process for getting back on a ship. Expect no less than 30 minutes to go thru only one security line.

Reykjavik was a small town, with high prices. It’s a three mile walk one way along the water but beautiful. Don’t miss the house of reclaimed metal and wood. It’s free.  Best thing to do is to take the free shuttle right where you dock. Leaves every 20 minutes from 8am til 9:30 pm . The puffin boat tour was good.

Alesfond Norway is beautiful. Take the city train about $36 CDN for a 70 minute trip including up the mountain . Lovely views and good shopping.

Malloy Norway is a nothing to do town so take the ship tour for highlights of Maloy. 

Flamm Norway is so pretty. I had taken the train before so did the short hike around town and up the hill. Prices for souvenirs was the cheapest here.

Day one was three queues and about an hour lost to lining up.  They need more staff on these tasks after people board.

I loved the cabin, restaurant, general atmosphere. 

I hated the dirty outside windows, the tendering process and the extra long security lines to get on the ship. They need to add more ways to get on for the non yacht club people.

Overall I will try another msc cruise.

Hope this helps

Marcia

Pre-cruise advice for Princes Cruises

 I just booked my third Princess Cruise in 2 years.  Why- they are going to the places I want to go, for as long as I want at relatively (the key word is relatively) decent prices.  I like cruises to be 14 to 20 days as this way I am relaxed when I get off.  

I was given the advice from a fellow solo traveler that you can get a back to back Alaskan cruise at very low prices.  They were definitely right.  The 14 day cruise on the Sapphire is costing about $650 per week for an obstructed ocean view guaranteed.  They no longer offer cabin selection for obstructed ocean view.  I really like to pick my own to get the best view but at this price I am taking the risk.

Below is some pre-cruise advice for Princess and some mitigation suggestions

1. If you pre-book the internet which I did as its half off for Platinum members book it at time of booking via your travel agent.  The only issue I am having which is the same each time is that the purchase shows up on the website when you log in but not the app.  Call to get that corrected as otherwise you have to line up at guest services when you get on board to correct it and then go to the ocean ready area for a setup. So annoying. 

2.  Pre-book your shore excursions early as the good ones always seem to sell out early.

3. Use a travel agent to do your booking - as the few times I booked thru Princess directly I did not get as good of a deal and the agent will help you with pre-cruise issues.

4.  I have booked the ezair option twice now when the price was better than booking direct and they guaranteed flexibilty and getting you there same day  However they will only pre-ticket before final payment when you pay in full and then the ticket is no longer flexible.  Its annoying when you like to pre-select your seats.  And if you are Canadian - Air Canada will charge in US dollars for the seat selection (it works out to about the same price Canadian). 

I hope this helps 

Marcia

MSC cruises - pre cruise advice and some updates once on board

 I am trying MSC again in June, even though it took them 14 months to return my money after cancelling my cruise due to the COVID pandemic.  I tried to book any other cruise line for a cruise to Iceland but they were all about 40% more, so I am going to risk it on the MSC Virtuosa.  Below are some things I learned in the pre-booking process and advice to mitigate any potential issues

1.  Read the reviews on Cruise Critic, Cruiseline and in particular as this cruise leaves out of Southhampton - you need to read the TripAdvisor UK reviews as they are many more reviews on this site.  Note the reviews are mixed with more leaning to the negative side.  The primary dislikes appear to be food (it’s like that for most cruises so I tend to disregard them as food is to personal taste), lack of public INDOOR spaces for seating and relaxing. It appears there is lots of outdoor seating but in northern climates this does little good.  Universally all reviews say guest relations is a nightmare to deal with.  On the positive side the cabins get very positive reviews with a few complaints on the size.  The reviews also say the staff (excluding guest relations and shore excursions) are great and very service oriented)

Take the negative reviews as potential problems areas so far other than the line ups  for internet help, getting dining time set and booking the carousel shows, no problems.

2. Don't expect a lot of shore excursions to be available.  In some of the ports I am going to there are no shore excursions offered, and for the few that are they are much more expensive than if you booked a local tour.  My suggestion is you create your itinerary and find local tours or explore on your own using public transport.  That is what I am doing in every port.  I found that in Reykjavik you can take the local bus to downtown and the harbor or walk. Its a similar situation in all of the other ports.  

3. MSC doesn't advise pre-cruise,  if transfers to downtown areas will be available in the ports. However reviews show that they appear to be but at a much higher cost than local transport.  Again do your research and importantly print out instructions, prices using rome2rio, or google maps.  Get printouts of the local bus routes by going to the local transport sites.  Note almost all buses require exact change for tickets.  Pre-purchase some local currency in small amounts to cover these expenses.  I always purchase a minimum of $50 per port in local currency,

4. I pre-booked a guaranteed ocean view cabin and while they say the cabin number usually will be provided 2 weeks before the cruise, they assigned my cabin within a few days of booking.  It’s an unobstructed ocean view which would have cost me about $200 more if I picked my own cabin.  Its risky to book a guaranteed cabin but in this case it appears to be ok except its beside an elevator.  Reviews rave about how quiet the elevators are but I will just have to see.  It’s people talking while waiting for elevators that can be an issue.  Remember to bring ear plugs.

the cabin is clean, small and you can not hear the elevator.  

5. MSC does not offer transfers from UK airports to the cruise port. In this case I am using National Express direct buses from Heathrow to Southhampton. Its about 15 pounds if you pre-book each way. Its only a 10 minute walk to the cruise terminal from the bus terminal.  I am going in the day before as the UK has so many people on strike. 

6. MSC will not confirm your dinner dining room time pre-cruise. This is for all categories but if you are the Bella option (the only one offered to Solos- clearly they don't want our extra money ) you may not get your desired early dinner time regardless if you booked really early as I did. 

Went day one to sign up for the time and restaurant. About a 15 minute wait.

7. You will get almost no pre-cruise emails from MSC - they don't try to sell you anything. They only sent me one cabin upgrade promotion but the prices are double for singles so never a good deal. 

8. MSC will offer you two types of internet - a basic for reading emails (but universally all that purchased it say it doesn't work well) and the streaming and download version for double the price, which I purchased at $224 for two weeks. It is a luxury that I will not do without. 

9. The MSC for me app seems ok but the true test will be when I am on board.  At this point I can not pre-book shows etc, but perhaps on board?

Easy to do once on board.

I hope this helps

Marcia