Travel Reports

Wow, this year was a wonderful vacation.

My parents and I had the time of our life. It was a dream come true.

The ship stopped at the following ports:

1. Newport
2. Boston
3. Bar Harbour
4. Saint John 
5. Halifax

Our tour began as the following. On the 27th of August we flew from Aruba to New York to and took a cruise from there. We stayed in New York a couple of days and went on the cruise ship on the 29th of August.

1. Newport

The first stop was at Newport. We decided to stay on board that day and enjoy the ship’s activities. There were many choices to accomodate everyone’s tastes including but not limited to dance classes, gym, fitness classes, shows, and casino.

2. Boston

At the 2nd port we went offshore. There we went in a trolley bus to see the city of Boston. Afterwards we went on an amphibious duck vehicle tour. The duck tour continued to show us the city highlights and then we went on the Charles river where we could see the Craigie Drawbridge, the Longfellow Bridge, Fenway Park and the Esplanade. The weather was nice, cold, and breezy on the river. The captain even let some passengers drive the ship and afterwards they got a sticker. It was an experience we will never forget.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Bar Harbour

Next we visited Bar Harbour. We used a tender to go from the ship to Bar Harbour since the port is not big enough to carry the ship. Bar Harbour is known for its lobsters. They are very delicious. We went on a scenic drive through the Acadia National Park. We visited the Acadia National Park, the Hull’s cove andthe Cadillac Mountain. At Bar Harbour there are not many houses because the nature is protected. Bar Harbour is filled with trees andits very clean. You could eat off the ground.

4. Saint John

At  the 4th port we took a tour in Saint John. We went on a trolley to see the best of Saint John and reversing fallls. Before we arrived the two rivers have just met andreached their peak. At that time they were going back to their places. This was very beautiful. Saint John is surrounded by a lot of nature. We also learnt the great history behind Saint John.

5. Halifax

Andon the second to last day we went to Halifax. There we went in a cobblestones & carriage trolley. The horses were very kind. We passed through the city of Halifax and learnt that there the Christmas trees grow and that many are exported to Boston. We also learnt about the great fire that occured in Halifax in the past and how they recovered from it. In Halifax you could also visit the cemetery where the Titanic passengers were buried.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thus, it was a great experience. Upon returning we stayed in New York for another night and then we were back on our way to Aruba. A lot of thanks to  MaduroTravel who helped us with all our questions and concerns while we were deciding on the cruise.

And a special thanks to them for upgrading our room on the ship.

I would recommend anyone to travel with Maduro Travel since they plan great trips and give valuable tips.

After a long flight oct 12, 2007 from Aruba via Amsterdam we arrive safe and well in Bangkok Thailand where the adventure started.

Upon arrival in Bangkok, we were met by the people of TRAVEX and transported to the excellent 5 star hotel AMARI WATERGATE.

The friendly people of Travex and the excellent service at the hotel made us feel at home in Thailand.

We adjusted the full day tour to the next day so our people could rest after a very long flight.

The rest of the days in Thailand were just excellent.

We visited the Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha temple, we did also the back canal tour and the Tuk Tuk.

On October 17 we were transported to the SAPPHIRE PRINCESS, and we had a quick check inn due everybody had been pre-checked  already in Aruba.

 

First stop on Oct 19 in SINGAPORTE (services of ASIAN TRIALS).

 

Singapore is a very clean and beautiful but very expensive and very strict in their laws.

For instance if they catch you with drugs, no matter if it is a small amount for own use , you will be beheaded.

Here we visited Arab street, Merlion Park, Chinatown,Gemstone factory, orchid garden etc.

 

October 21 HO CHI MINH CITY, was a very tiring day for all of us. We had to drive about 3 ½ hours to the city and 3 ½ hours back, leaving us with only 2 hrs to visit the Notra dame cathedral, thien Hua pagoda, national city post office, but time had been too short.

Recommendation for next time..stay countryside..where you have also nice things to see.

Services from DIETHELM TRAVEL was fine.

 

OCT 22 NHA TRANG, we had to tender about 25minutes from shore.

Diethelm travel also here in Nha Trang did a good job.

We visited a mat weaving village, Panagar Cham tower, art gallery and a local farmer house.

After a long day at sea, finally what people had been waiting for HONG KONG!!.

On Oct 24 we arrived in Hong Kong and greeted by Success travel, who took care of us for the whole day.

Hong Kong is what everybody expected (new York city at night)

In Hong Kong we visited Hong Kong Island, with stops at Aberdeen Fishing, Victoria peak, Kowloon city, jade market and Wong Tai Sin temple.

TAIPEI.. oct26 United Express picked us up for museum hopping.

We visited

1.National Palace  Museum

2. Chiang Kai shek memoral hall

3. Sun yat sen memoral hall

We returned to the pier at 3pm for an early departure from Taipei.

 

On Oct.27 we arrived in OKINAWA, and here we used the services of Nippon Express, who as they don’t have professional tour guides in Okinawa, flew one in from Osaka (2 hours flight) to meet and greet us.

Also here we had a very short day due to the fact that the ship docked at midday and left again at 6pm.

Also in Okinawa we did the city tour and again visits to museum, Shurei castle and the Kokusai street.

SHANGHAI on October 29 was another of our stops that all the passengers loved.

We visited the Temple of the Jade buddha, Yuyuan gardens and we had some time in the afternoon to shop. Departure from Shanghai was very nice at night with all the lights. (services from mandarin international)

 

 

 

A very sad and emotional day we had on October 31 in NAGASAKI, where again the same guide we had in Okinawa flew over again from Osaka and showed us NAGASAKI.

A lot of emotions came up here, especially at the Atomic bomb museum, where you could see the remains of objects from the atomic bomb.

We also visited the Memorial Peace park, where a lot of countries around the world has a peace statue in honor of those who lost their lives.

In the afternoon we climbed the Mt.Inasayama in a cable car from where we could admire the whole city of Nagasaki with its rivers and trees (jungle).

Also here in Nagasaki we could have entered the only catholic church we encountered during our trip and we took some time to sit down and do our prayers.

 

This night onboard the ship was the gala night, we had planned the cocktail party  before dinner time, so at 6pm we have gathered all the people from Aruba and Curacao for a one hour cocktail party with hot and cold canapés.

We had ALL 67 passengers together with no exception and it was a big success.

For the Aruba group Dr. Kock did a tremendous speech mentioning e. that this trip should not be called**leew for di cas*** but….**hooopi leew for di cas**.

Dr. Abdallah  could not thank enough for this fabulous trip.

All passengers were happy with the services of MADURO TRAVEL.

(Aruba+Curacao).

Up to this day everything was fine with all shore excursions and onboard the cruise and everybody was happy.

 

The disembarkation on November 2^nd went smooth.

So we had a special disembarkation that was even in the disembarkation program as MADURO GROUP.

The luggage was outside the cabins the night before and we found them back in our hotel room in Beijing when we got into the room.

 

Upon arrival in Beijing we first did the City tour in the morning, the Temple of Heaven, and in the afternoon we returned to the hotel

On our 2^nd day in Beijing we visited the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square and in the afternoon were planned Jade factory, silk factory, pearl factory.

All the Aruba and Curacao group agreed that we have seen enough of jade, silk , pearls etc and they wanted to skip all that so they could have time for shopping.

 

 

 

3^rd day in Beijing we did the GREAT WALL OF CHINA and in the afternoon they gave us enough time off and took us to 2 different market places where we did bargain and most of the people bought a lot.

After shopping we went to the acrobatic show till 9pm, after which we returned to the hotel to get ready to say good bye to CHINA.

 

Although everybody went to bed early so that they can be ready for take off, I stayed up till almost 3.30am to check inn everybody on the KLM flight the next day, because it was a completely sold out flight and we didn’t want more surprises from KLM.

So with only about 2 hours sleep, we were ready in the lobby at 6am, where everybody were told to recognized their luggage to be transported to the airport.

 

 

Thank god everything was OK the next day, so we could have taken the shuttle to the airport and board the KLM to ARUBA.

 

The flight went very smooth and everybody was feeling fine.

 

THIS ENDS OUR*******FAR EAST CRUISE******

 

If I have to give a score for this excursion it will be a definite 9 .

 

 

On Sept. 5 we left for Amsterdam and the flight was perfect. The flight to Copenhagen was very nice. When we arrived the guide was waiting for us with the sign of “Maduro Travel”. While the group went outside to board the bus I had to stay some people who were claiming that one of their suitcases had been damaged. After they filled out the form we headed for the bus where the rest of the group was already waiting for us.

 

Sept. 6 - Hotel Radisson SAS Royal

 

The check-in went very smooth and everyone went up to their rooms to refresh and meet in the lobby to go out to eat. The hotel was beautiful, the rooms, the location and the service. When we came down back several groups were formed to have a bit to eat. We went to a restaurant at the Tivoli Gardens. We checked several of the menus placed outside of the restaurants. It was not easy to choose. Finally we made up our minds and had dinner. After that we walked a bit around not going into the gardens as we were all tired and wanted to go sleep. Our room was opposite the garden so we had a wonderful view.

 

 

 

Sept. 7 - Tour and Check in

 

After having a delicious buffet breakfast we checked out and the bus came at 9 am to pick us up for the City Tour. The weather was cloudy but still we had the opportunity to take some nice pictures. Copenhagen is a very neat and organized city. The Tour was very interesting and the guide kept our interest from the first moment till the end. After the tour the bus took us to the port. The check in went very easy as we were almost the only ones to check in.

 

When we got on board everyone went to their cabins and we met again at the Tour Desk to book our tours. Several of the group had already booked their tours via the Internet and it was good they had done this because several of the first tours in the morning were already sold out. My husband and I were able to book the tours together.

 

I can imagine that because all were all experienced travelers, everyone was very much on their own and we would meet them anywhere around the ship.

 

The first evening on the ship I got a call from the Maitre D of the Sabatini Restaurant saying that there was a group standing there because they were part of a group of 25 for dinner that evening. I told him that I was going to call him to reserve the dinner for Monday (as stated in our information folder). He recommended then that it would be better to have the dinner on Wednesday evening as Monday was the Gala Night and Tuesday he had a big Japanese group.

 

I will not be mentioning every port as my report would take up too much space I think One thing was always very nice and we were always proud to mention on the bus, when asked, where we were from and to say ARUBA!

 

In Helsinki our group went on the bus with another group so we had almost the whole bus for us. Helsinki reminded us very much of Amsterdam. The guide explained that Dutch architects designed the buildings. You can see this on the pictures. Helsinki is an amazing and beautiful town. 

 

The dinner at Sabatini’s was on Wednesday, Sept. 10^th. The group really enjoyed this dinner and thanked Maduro Travel for this gesture. One of the group members related to a spot on the t.v. of Setar: “Ta p’esey nos ta book cu Maduro Travel ainda”. Everyone agreed!

 

The highlight of course was St. Petersburg. There was so much to do and to see that it was impossible to do it all. Most of the group coincided the evening of the Russian Folkloric dance presentation.

For most the port that was less interesting was Tallinn. I don’t know if it was because it was the one after we had been to such an interesting city as St. Petersburg or because there was really very little to see.

All in all… How can you say no to Cruising? It’s down right Wonderful!

Un cordial saludos pa Maduro Travel Crew, mi experencia pa cu Maduro Travel ta uno hopi di aperecia, semper nan ta dispuesto pa lluda na cualkier momento, wel mi a caba di bai e cruise di Carnival Freedom cu mi a pasa super great conhuntamente cu mi famia, un danki ta bai na bosonan cu mi por a logra e viahe aki y asina e sonja di mi Tata a bira realidad. Pa e siguiente anja lo nos kier bai celebra aniversario di bida matrimonial di mi mayornan ariba un cruise, manera un union familiar.

las ultimas vacaciones que tomamos fueron programadas por maduro travel . fuimos a miami y de alli tomamos un crucero a las bahamas, la pasamoa del carajo , todo salio muy bien y gozamos bastante, era la primera vez que utilizabamos los servicios de maduro travel y la verdad , para mi proximo viaje volvere a utilizarlos.

The BEST vacation to me is going on a cruise, you don’t need to worry ’bout nothing… just pampering time!! This year July my family & I went on a cruise  for the 3rd time to the Western Caribbean and it was a blast, since this time my sister that lives in SXM and my father went along… it was the best!!! Miami is always great, when it comes to the shopping… I even visited the Versaci house, very nice; Ocean Drive have good nightlife too

Two years ago we made a trip probably  the best that we ever have made so far.

My boyfriend and I decided to book a trip to Costa Rica. We traveled a couple times before through Maduro travel and had decided to book again with them. With the assistance from Nelly we found a nice trip and after talking and looking we decided to add a couple days to relax. All right from the start everything was perfectly arranged. We were picked up from the airport,brought to the hotel and allready one hour later somebody called to check is everything was allright and explained about the next day.

The next morning we were picked up on time and traveled to the east part of Costa Rica. After a couple hours driving we had to go on a boot and traveled hours through the jungle to the resort.  What a beautiful trip that first day allready. The resort was nice, the area stunning and we saw the first monkeys and crocodiles. We went on a tour through the jungle, saw six leatherbacks lying eggs on the beach in one night and we had a great tourguide who knew everything about the wildlife. The next day we did a canopy tour and went with the boot to see more crocodiles etc. The day after that we went to the Volcano arenal. Again everything perfect arranged. The vulcano was awesome. Amazing to sit in front of your cabin and look at the Volcano at night. The next day we went to the waterfalls on a horse, we climbed on a side of the vulcano and jumped into the hot water spring Spa. One day later we went in to the mountains to another jungle. we made a night tour and saw a lot of creepy creatures crawling around. This hotel was so peacefully. And the staff gave us an upgrade on the rooms without asking, just because it was low season and quite. I never had a bigger room in my life before.

The last part of the trip went to Quepos. Wauw. A beautiful hotel on a hill overlooking the ocean and a natural park. The restaurant was on the second floor where the monkeys were sitting in the trees next to us. Again an upgrade for the rooms without asking. We booked a couple days more here to relax and it was well worth it. This is a hotel to come back to. I hardly go back to the same place twice, but this hotel.. ( El Parador, Quepos.. remember that name, you won’t regret this). We went to the natural park, went on a tour to see some dolphins and went horse back riding again and on that trip we saw like 30 monkeys jumping above our heads from one side of the road to another. This trip was truly amazing. we went in the low season what was also the rainy season in Costa Rica, but we were glad that we went in that period. We just has a couple showers and because it was low season and quit we had better rooms and saw a lot more wild animals.

Thanks to Nelly to help arrange this super trip and we will certainly go back to Costa Rica.

Last year (2008) I took a trip in the carribean with the Empress / Pullmantur. The service aboard a was a terrific one, the bartenders, waiters/waitresses were very friendly. The entertainment was very good, the shows were very amusing, the music varied from standard jazz (trio) to latin (brazilian and dominican band), there were different entertainment rooms on different levels, entertainment on the pooldeck was cheerful, funny. I even loved the gym, it had a lot of space and equipment, and i did use it for 5 consecutive days, in the mornings. Last day at sea, we danced boleros the whole night. The food was good, with ample choices. The restaurants were spacious, and again the crew was very friendly. No complaints about the air conditioning either. A perfect trip.

So I decided to do it all over again this year. I was very excited, and thought the Ocean Dream would fulfill this dream like the Empress did. I must be honest, this was a big dissapointment. Everything on the Ocean Dream was the opposite of all the terrific things I experienced on the Empress.

My next cruise will be around april/may next year (2010), and I hope to be as lucky as last year, and to enjoy the trip as I did last year…………………Richard

Mi soño ta pa hasi mi mama su soño realidad

Ami tin 20 anja di edad.Mi tin dos ruman muhe mas.15 anja pasa nos tata a fallece i laga nos chikito.E a priminti di hiba nos Disney World pero destino tawata tin algo otro pe.Ora e la bai sosega mi mama so mester a keda wak pa nos sin ajudo di ningun hende.Su so mester a lanta tres mucha muhe i semper hende tawata bise cu esey ta hopi duro como cu tur e riesgo nan i peligro nan cu tin na mundo.Pero cu FE den Señor nos Dios e la logra su meta.e mester a traha dos trabouw un di parti corant den madruga i despues bin mainta cas i prepara nos pa bai scol pa despues e bai traha na su trabouw di den dia.Como cu nunka e no tawata wak nos i semper ta traha e la disidi di keda cu un trabouw so cual ta di parti corant.Pero e trabouw ey tampoko no ta nada dushi.Nos mester a bai cune tur madruga bai jude paso no tin niun hende pa wak pa nos.Semper e la zorg pa tin cuminda na mesa i panja na nos curpa i un dak riba nos cabes.Mi ta gradici Dios tur dia di mi bida cu mi mama tey ainda i ta trahando ainda.Awe nos ta grandi caba pero mi mama a logra pa nos caba nos scol i pa nos ta hendenan cu respet pa hende i hopi amor pa hende.Semper e la bisa nos cu su deseo ta pa prome cu e muri e bai riba un crusero pa e descansa i disfruta di bida quisiera pa un siman.

Pero manera boso sa nunca nos por a bai pa motibo economico i ta su so cu nos.Pero dia cu Maduro Travel a bin cu e campaña aki mi a hanje hopi interesante i cu e speransa cu mi por cumpli cu mi mama mi ta hasiendo esaki.Mi no tin storia great of bunita pa conta paso nunka mi a bai riba un crusero pero cu tur loke mi a wak riba televishon i loke mi a tende di hendenan cu si a bai mi ta mas cu 100% sigur cu ta bale la pena pa ba riba un cruise trip.Mi ta imaginami bandi e pool ta tuma solo cu mi mama i rumannan ta relax i pasando un rato ameno.

Mi mama ta unhende ehemplar den mi bida.Poco ta e mama nan cu ta sigui bai dilanti cu nan jiuwnan ora nan keda nan so.Pero mi mama pa tur  trabouw cu e la hasi durante 15 anja mi ta kere cu e merece un trip riba crusero.Ami lo ta mas cu felis si boso di Maduro Travel lo por hasi mi mama su sonjo realidad.Mi ta laga tur cos den Dios su man cu e speransa di subi riba e crusero i bai pasa e dianan di mas felis di mi bida cu mi mama i rumannan.Dios bendishona boso i sigui cu e bon trabouw cu boso ta hasiendo.

Danki di antemano.

Luz-Marie Colina.