Aulanis

Hi vikinger may not see your reply as he is not "Following" to get someone's attention you should type the special key for "at" then a box will open and you start to type in their CC name until it finds it and they should get an advice. example @travelterrim and for @cmvikinger I think you looked at the date travelterrim joined Cruise critic not the date of his post 🙂

That would be us then 😉 When we were there, there was a free port shuttle as they said you could not walk off!! However you could the shuttle is a small bus and coming back we waited ages and ended up walking back to the ship. This pic shows the end of the inner harbour wall that the bus goes over then it turns right along to the Heart place you show. Second pic if you Zoom in on it you can see the back of the heart and a christmas tree near the centre of the pic at the end of the second long building. So it not far at all. As you leave the area there are many tuktuks available we dined later with someone who had taken one to the Temple. They HAL also had a paid shuttle to the beach but think it was only mentioned the night before after they had sold all the tours they could. It was either 15usd or 25usd return, cant recall as we didnt use it.

HAL Charged USD50 pp for our Cambodia visa. More than some but less than others and less the HAL online guess of Usd60 Only alternative was to visit embassy in London which would have cost us more for travel. @alwayscruisetime "I don't know if it was because our ship was the first to call there this season, but at Sihanoukville the Prime Minister came to the dock and gifted every passenger with a local-made scarf as they disembarked. " Hi The reception/party was because when the Westerdam got stuck in Asia on the outbreak of covid Cambodia was the only country that would let them dock and allow the cruisers and some of the staff to travel to the airport to get home. If you google Sihanoukville and westerdam there are news reports. We were not going ashore but on seeing the port talk decided we would try and walk to a Temple. By chance we met some others doing the same and they had a map on their phone so asked if we could follow them. It was well worth the visit though the 4km or so walk there and back in almost 100deg F what a challenge.

I would also agree that it would be tight. In May the weather would not be expected to be bad but if good at a weekend the traffic could be a problem. This site https://www.ecminibus.co.uk/southampton-cruise-terminals/ suggests time for transfer to Gatwick. As I am sure you are aware it is suggested you need to be checking in at the airport for an international flight 3 hours before. If there is a suitable flight on the Monday you could stay overnight at an airport hotel one at each terminal and free shuttle between terminals. There is a regular coach service , national express , but takes 4 hours or so.

The evisa is not acceptable for arrival by sea they can be only used in major airports. Unless it is cheaper for you to go to London the cruise line is the cheapest and easiest.

Yes all you say is correct. We have had to get the ship to do ours its too expensive to go to the embassy in London and I got no reply from the consular service in London or Cambodia regarding the Type D visa.

Cannot view any members content? Edit - Not even my own.

Maybe ask in the Roll Call for this cruise? Though its not very active. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826481-norwegian-prima-–-july-14-2024-– 11-day-northern-europe-from-london-to-reykjavik-iceland-norway/#comment-62529009

WE are on a cruise that visits Sihanoukville 1 day only and I believe that the place has deteriorated a lot in the last few years. Anyway we are told we have to have a visa and the evisa is not available to cruise passengers, which means an expensive full visa is required or the ship may do a group one that would save the hassle. However I have come across this iVisa.com have this on their website Cambodia Transit Visa (D): In 2023, the Royal Government of Cambodia announced the short-term transit visa (D category) to tourists visiting the country on a cruise ship. It allows you to stay in the country for up to 96 hours. You can apply for this visa through a consulate or authorized travel agencies. I am seeking further details as this is new for 2023 but wonder if anyone else has found anything anywhere. Or does anyone know if you HAVE to have visa even if not getting off the ship?

All fixed now 🙂

@spuggie500 Hi OK I have found a short cut that cuts out a lot of the steps - This is a lot harder to explain how to do it than it takes to do it! so 1 As you are in cruise critic just click this LINK 2 Maybe keep it simple for now - if you just want to delete what is there then click on the end of the last item then press backspace until it has all gone. scroll to the bottom and press SAVE Next if you just want a list like the one in my signature depending on how many cruises you want to add you can either just type them straight into you signature and when happy REMEMBER to scroll down and SAVE. If you have a long list I would type them into word or notepad or similar then save that list. then copy it. Select it all then (Ctrl key and C key ) 2 get back to your signature in CC and paste the list (Ctrl Key and V ) See if it looks ok then SAVE. If doing a long list probably better to just get the list ready then go into CC and use the link to get to signature then paste the list at the top scroll down to the end and delete the old stuff. If you then book another cruise you use the link and just add cruise detail it at the top of the list then scroll to the bottom and SAVE. You can add the link to your bookmarks/favourites or put it with your cruise list in word etc. Any problems just come back on this thread. which is in the TEST section of CC https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2963763-sig-test/

https://www.portquebec.ca/en/cruises/vessel-schedules/seasonal-schedule Its not allocated yet only up until 12 Oct. you can have a look but will need to check nearer the time.

From the DeGiro website "This communication is issued on behalf of flatexDEGIRO Bank AG and has been approved as a financial promotion on 3rd August 2023, for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services Market Act 2000 (FSMA), by Resolution Compliance Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:574048). flatexDEGIRO Bank AG is an overseas firm which is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. This means that the FCA Rules made under FSMA for the protection of retail clients do not apply to the services provided by flatexDEGIRO Bank AG but investors are instead protected under applicable German law and Dutch law rules that apply to flatexDEGIRO Bank AG. Investors are not protected by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Dont know exactly what that means but would put me off

It will cost more but I think you can still get an actual share cert. We bought years ago via the registrars Equiniti and had a digital holding. Originally this was free then they wanted IIRC £20 a year to hold an electronic record!! As this was a change in contract I opted out and got a certificate. If we sell it will probably cost more but as the share price has dropped so much unlikely to sell. Have had them so long the benefit claimed is in excess of the loss. I did have a problem with Holland America as they dont seem to understand a share certificate is ultimate proof of ownership. I asked the nice people at Carnival Benefits UK if they can handle it for our next cruise and they have said yes - if I send it to them they will pass it HAL in the same office 🙂 and I will not have to go via the US. As with most cruise lines the answer to any query can differ depending on who you speak to 😞

Hi have tried to search for this but failed. Princess and the Port Authority have got us docking at Wharf 103 which gets very little mention anywhere. I have maps and see where it is and have been assured by the port authority that a free shuttle will be provided to the city. What I cant find is where the cruise ship shuttles usually drop off in the city. There are shuttles mentioned from wharf 30 and I guess ours will use the same drop off. Pleas can someone advise where that might be? TIA

I cant understand why Princess have not said from cruises booked after ???? the changes will apply. This all happened before in Nov/Dec 22 when they changed the packages and as far as I can tell they changed the when it will happen date. Could be however that they since changed some wording in the contract so that they are on a better legal footing now? There are a lot of posts on CC from that earlier change.

I have read a lot of this thread ( Must get a life) Bottom line is the bottom line only a few have mentioned it but I suspect the change has been rushed through without adequate notice as Carnival are being hit hard by increased interest rates on debts. I doubt if fixed rates are applicable. Carnival long term debt for the quarter ending May 31, 2023 was $31.921B, a 9.08% increase year-over-year. Carnival long term debt for 2022 was $31.953B, a 12.08% increase from 2021. Carnival long term debt for 2021 was $28.509B, a 28.83% increase from 2020. So say $30B debt Fed rates March 2022 were .25% and now are 5.5% Just using those rates Annual Interest charge pre March 22 would have been $75,000.000 but due to rate rise is now $1,650,000,000 ( if I got the math right) Even ignoring the lenders margins thats a helluvalot of Pizzas !! Next up charge for entry to the shows?? Trivia $2 swipe medallion on entry to venue Prize 1 Pizza per team As for oldies v newbies if the oldies are like us, this year we will have cruised 90 days and last year we did 72 days all but 13 days were with Carnival group. Are there many younger cruisers out there that will be managing to fit that in? Its ok trying to change the demographics but that will take years (even more years if retirement age continues to rise) and if they force the oldies out and not replaced by newbies they will have half empty ships? or will have gone bust!!

Our cruise choice is largely based on destination and as long as we get something edible to eat at every meal we are usually happy enough on any line/ship. Elite on Princess and a smattering of other lines we do compare, but wouldnt book a cruise based on how good the buffet service is. We have rarely used a buffet for dinner. We have never used room service or OceanNow and dont drink enough to merit a drinks package though we occasionally have a package if it is included in the original price of the cruise, not as an add on. All in all we think Princess has been going downhill for years and I think they found some difficulty in staffing the ships after Covid. We went back to P&O this year as the food and service on our early cruises with them was better than we were experiencing on Princess and we reckon that is still the case. They have also been chipping away at the elite perks and at the same time increasing the prices of add ons. £65 a day for stuff we dont really need!! We have one cruise next month that is 23 nights and the add on would be more than we paid for the cruise. Based on the itinerary we took a "Trial" cruise on a new UK based line Ambassador ,ship was old but refitted and the meals in the MD were better and with more interesting choices and better presentation than P&O or Princess. Sadly some other aspects of the cruise were not to our liking so will be sticking to what we like.

The north west is also served by coaches we looked at it more closely because of train strikes and the hotel prices in Southampton seem to have rocketed. We are going with Eavesway. same day service, seems expensive but by the time you add up train fare hotel and evening meal its about the same and no worries re strike and no heaving luggage through London. I also think that if a coach was a bit late the ship would be more inclined to wait a bit. Another we have used is Intercruises.

We were in the late shows , not by choice, and there was room for all. One crazy thing is]that there are several levels and each has fixed bench seating then on the same level they have a row of movable ( if you can lift them) swivel chairs that are the same height. The bench seating is more comfortable but you risk a tall person sitting straight in front of you. If it is a show that you have to see as well as hear we found it better to suffer the discomfort. Occasionally there were no fixed seats and we just had to sit in front of someone else. There were also the types who take a comfortable back seat and put an article on the seat in front. Witnessed a group of 4 who initially had 8 seats then maybe decided 15minutes in they didnt like it and 2 of them left so there were then 2 people with 8 seats !!! As to the sickness I was surprised we didnt have much as whilst self serve was out they did not really police the hand washing as I have seen on other ships and people just walked into the buffet without washing or even using the sanitiser. Another anomaly was you couldnt press 2 buttons to get a cup of coffee but if you wanted any sauces you were directed to a tray of various bottles to help yourself which of course meant picking up the bottle opening the cap squeezing it replace the cap and return to the tray. Hope you cruise says clear it can of course depend on where the cruise is going and if people pick up a bug eating while ashore.

You would be better posting this in the Roll Call for that cruise. Roll Calls for "other" lines are not that easy to find, so it is here. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2853443-ambassador-cruise-line-around-the-world-2024-roll-call-january-6-2024-london-tilbury/?do=getNewComment Also in order that you get notified of replies you should " follow" the thread. Scroll up to the top of a thread you are in and click where it says follow and say how you would want informed. This changed on CC about 2 years ago I think before if you posted you were automatically following.

Thankyou all 😊 All done ! booked 4 we really wanted to do and as you have said it does carry forward any unused balance. So its not as the wording suggested 3 trips from the credit. We have $0.20 left couldnt find a trip for that LOL. We will maybe look at others now and see if anyone is putting together diy trips. Bit early to start packing!!

I have another HIA query. HIA is included in our package and we have 3 excursions. We dont go until november but want to book in case they fill up. Question is how/ when is the HIA credit applied? As far as I can tell when booking an excursion it says your credit card will be charged straight away. I have not actually tried a dummy excursion booking so it may be obvious when I get in there but dont want to book something and find they only apply the credit if booked on board.( it is less than the $100 so I know we will only get say $80 but does it get credited to the on Board account or the credit card? and if the latter presume not until after the cruise. TIA

I think the perks offered by US agents are there because the Lines allow it. For many US is their main market and their international marketing strategy doesnt cover perks for brits. We tend to use a agent as it gives us someone to blame if it goes wrong rather than blaming ourselves. 😉 We also use an agent when long flights are involved as our experience has been that I can never find flights cheaper than the agent, usually significantly more expensive. When we got stuck in OZ when covid broke out it was good to have an agent to fight our corner. Having an agent does give other avenues of enquiry we hove found it very difficult to contact Holland America and the agent seemed to have on screen access. Against that some lines Ambassador for one dont really want ANY contact if you have booked through an agent, though their whole set up doesnt match the service we get elsewhere. Before covid we could usually get to deal with one person at travel agencies or even at the cruise line at least for the cruise but now I think both the large agents and lines all have as many staff working from home as possible and contact is totally random , responses scripted and sometimes dubious. So you pays your money and take a chance however you book.

Refer a friend - No chance! -