SailingSiggy
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On 12/7/2018 at 11:00 AM, RFerrington said:
...if you're lucky. Sometimes (in the past, before I started tracking my own points) they can only give you the points earned on your most recent cruise. I find the reps to be inconsistently (word of the millenium for RC) able to provide historical information from past cruises. Perhaps they've improved this ability recently.
I had this issue when I first found out that I was prime and was trying to back track my points starting 1 April 2018. At first the rep could only tell me my points from my last cruise but after refusing to accept just that she eventually got a supervisor to unlock something in their system so she could give me ship by ship my points from 1 Apr on.
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Greetings, new to the thread. Found out I was Prime on Harmony in July. Have never received any emails from CR. Took them the entire month of August to validate my status and issue my cruise certificate.
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Roll Call thread goes in this forum:
Sorry, I have created the roll call in the proper forum. Can you delete my post here?
I also screwed up the format for the roll call as I have 21 July 2018 not July 21, 2018. Can you either adjust or just delete my roll call and maybe I'll try another day.
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Guess I'll start the roll call. I have been waiting for the summer 2018 cruises to open up. Harmony July 2018 will represent both my 60th birthday cruise coupled with the sailing I climb over the top at 700+ points for Pinnacle. Looking forward to the two milestones and getting to meet folks that are coming along for the party.
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Looks like one of the radar domes. Should see one on the starboard side soon.
Just as long as it's not more "art work" along the lines of the Quantum class.
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John - we will usually ask what the cruiselines are offering as far as air goes, and then try to match or beat it.
We usually have been able to find reasonable private transfers on our own - and can provide some options in Budapest, Bucharest and Prague if you are interested. We have found public transport in both Amsterdam and Nice.
If you are looking at the Danube or Rhine - look at Scenic's 8 day Gems of the Danube. Scenic is quite pricey except for this itinerary.
Right now Avalon has some specials on their 2016 cruises. Scenic is offering free air for some of their longer cruises (ie: 15 days). There seems to be some deals available across the board if you think you are interested in traveling this year.
Hope this helps... Happy to answer further questions if you have any.
Fran
Fran great information. I am actually planning ahead for a 2017 cruise and just trying to get some decision points so I can be ready, or close to ready, once the 2017 schedules come out.
Based on the 2016 schedules I'm leaning towards either Viking's Rheinland Discovery (12 nights Bruges to Basel) or AMA's Enchanting Rhine (12 nights Amsterdam to Zurich). I do have 4 others on my list under consideration including Viking's Grand European Tour but at this early point am most likely to select from the first two.
I need to go over some time in the next week or so and sit down with my TA and go over all of this to see what info she can provide. Seems to me that today TAs are more a booking agent rather than a travel agent. And for the major cruise lines that is pretty much what I use them for as I have done almost 40 voyages on cruise ships so I know what I want there.
That's why I'm looking at 2017 for my river cruise as I already have 2016 filled with the major cruise lines and need to decide if I'm doing a river cruise before the cruise lines remaining 2017 schedules come out and I book myself full.
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Fran,
Any information regarding flights? Viking lists references for flights booked through them, understanding that their listed price is probably a "target". However, the other river lines don't talk pricing for their airfare. Assuming you may have used the cruiselines air did you find AMA to offer comparable prices?
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Welcome to the River Cruising forum!
I suggest you start by reading the sticky New to RIVER CRUISING??? at the top of this forum, especially the downloadable pdf:
http://pdf.cruisecritic.com/travel-g...t_rid=99616845
which discusses each cruise line and compares them to ocean cruise lines and hotels [this will give you a frame of reference].
Host Jazzbeau, thanks. This did give a good comparison and reference points.
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I think you may have missed an important component of this comment. Those extra cabins may well be on the lower decks and maybe you won't be... But all those extra passenger (40 - 60 of them) will be overflowing into the limited public spaces to include the one seating dining room and tours.
The river boats can only be so big as they have to fit in locks that are a fixed width and length and still be able to sail under many old bridges.
I fully understand the ship size restrictions and I didn't miss the point. The difference in passenger capacity of the ships I'm looking at for the cruises I'm considering is 26.
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Is there a reason why you are focused on those 2 lines? There are a number of other lines that also offer a solid product.
If there is something that you *really* want to see or experience, look for a cruise that meets that need. You should think about how all-inclusive you want/need the cruise to be - as that will affect the price. If price isn't really a factor, then you may want to consider one of the companies that have a higher "luxury" factor (Scenic, Uniworld, Tauck).
Not sure if I really helped... please post with any questions if you feel you would like some further detail.
Have fun planning!!
Fran
Fran,
Thanks for all of the info, this indeed does help and good to hear from someone that has been on both. As someone else mentioned the # of cabins/passengers, cabin sizes etc., I have all of that information available in the brochures. Cabin sizes are basically the same and the majority of the additional cabins on Viking are on the lower deck without French/balcony.
I had also checked Uniworld and on comparable itineraries did find them to be high priced. 8 night Uniworld more expensive than 10-12 nighters on the others. And yes, AMA is slightly higher than Viking. Had not considered Tauck and had not heard of Scenic but will check them out.
One thing I do like on AMA is that the ships do have some pool/hot tub whereby Viking doesn't. Also AMA at least advertises nightly entertainment while Viking/Uni don't even mention entertainment. Not sure what the entertainment is and it may be lectures on the next days stop which is ok. My one concern is that by 9 pm on a river cruise (European or US) the ship will amount to a ghost town. I can only read myself to sleep so many nights in a row. And yes, I would not expect entertainment along the lines of the major cruise lines.
For now I'm specifically looking at Rhine/Danube river cruises. Have always wanted to do at least one but always pushed back after figuring out prices and then comparing that to what I pay for a Caribbean cruise. I know, you can't compare the two cruise experiences.
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Looking into my first river cruise in 2017. Well traveled on ocean cruises however trying to distinguish the difference between AMA and Viking from all of the "brochure" talk which sounds like the same individual wrote them all. For those that have sailed on both lines, is there anything that stands out on one over the other?
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I would be interested to know from anyone just returning from a cruise if their sailing was still participating in the MAW walk/Charity?
Thanks
There are posts here indicating if there was or wasn't. I am on Grandeur now, the ship where the CD made the statement it was stopping. They still had a walk and tshirts.
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Thanks for posting Karen. This was the first I had heard of this when Mitch covered it in his morning show when promoting todays walk for wishes. Took me by surprise. I know some ships do little to promote MAW and the walk anymore.
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So the wardrobes flank the bed/sofa rather than being on the backside of the washroom? If so that is a HUGE improvement and lessens the concern about bed by balcony vs washroom :D
If I remember correctly Quantum still had alternating cabins with beds by the balcony. Had a connecting stateroom on Quantum. My cabin was as in the photo depicted but believe the other was the opposite with the desk near the cabin door and bed by the balcony.
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Recently back from 9 night Med cruise on Splendour of the Seas. Used RIL to tour Rome, including the Vatican with separate guide. RIL representatives were very responsive to emails prior to the cruise including several changes to the group size as we added some others from CC. Guide was waiting for us, ahead of schedule, when we disembarked in Civitavecchia and did an excellent tour of the listed places. Stopped at a great restaurant for lunch before going on to the Vatican. The guide, Mike, provided good commentary of the sights we stopped at. As recommended, all had prepurchased the tickets for the Coliseum and Vatican which saved time when we were there. Federica was our guide for the Vatican and she was exceptional at moving us around/through the crowds at the entrance to get us into the Vatican in good time. Overall was a fantastic tour and well recommended.
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Looking for recommendations on which of these two to chose. Any experience with these would be appreciated.
Devils Island Cruise Beach Snorkel or Bermuda Triangle Shipwreck Snorkel.
How visible are the shipwrecks?
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Anyone have experience with this tour - Night Tales in Old San Juan? Any feedback?
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Booked for the Ta as well.
13 night from Barcelona to Palma, Malaga then on to Fort Lauderdale.
Booked B1 for $2238 and still have D discount to come off that price.
He didn't have deck plans or anything but thanks to Cc I helped him out.
Is that the price pp or for 2.
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If Harmony is to sail from Spain, then all the live plants would have to be removed prior to coming to USA.
Did they remove all of the plants from Oasis when it was there last summer?
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I read one place and don't claim any reliability of the statement, but it said the pool in the solarium of this new ship would be more like the one that is in the solarium on Quantum (an actual pool you can swim in as opposed to the rinsing station currently on Allure and Oasis) :)
Quantum has an indoor pool you can swim in but that is not the solarium. You can't swim in the Quantum solarium pools, they are waist deep.
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Don't forget they had Mariner do a test turn around in the Key West basin back in 2012 on her way to drydock. They didn't do it for fun, so I'm expecting a Voyager class to be the choice. If it's not, then Enchantment seems to be the only other logical choice, since any other Vision class or Radiance class would be a significant decrease in capacity and they aren't about to do that on this cash cow run.
I had heard that too from a crew member last year which would seem to set up for a Voyager class to take over.
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I was provided these menus from the executive office (Adam Goldstein's) in response to an email asking about this after seeing people post they were told they didn't exist on the maiden voyage. I don't have the pdf file on my phone but will post it later this morning.
I am on the inaugural next week and will be carrying a copy with me just in case.
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Did they have lobster at the free restaurants? Any tips. we are going 12-1. Your review was great. Did they have enough activities on sea days thanks.
This link is supposed to have the menus that were used on the TA.
If you go through the Quantum link on RCIs site it still has the menus that originally came out when DD was introduced.
Lobster originally was in AI but was in Grande on the TA. This from reading reviews as I was not on the TA. Only reviews I saw wrt the lobster (2) said it wasn't very good.
Liz may know more as she was on the TA.
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Thank you for this nice report! Do you have a picture of the alternative menu?
Gesendet von meinem iPhone mit Forums
Simple menu (as Royal calls it, otherwise the alternate menu) attached. This was provided to me from the Miami office.
New Casino Prime Member - Questions
in Royal Caribbean International
Posted
In the past I have used my free Prime cruise for a cruise I already had booked. I had called club royale prior to original booking of the cruise and they told me I needed to book it with a refundable deposit. That way when I received the prime certificate and transferred the booking to club royale they repriced it and refunded me the balance of my deposit.