Tiggerontheseas

23 hours ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

 

I heard that there will only be 6 ships in Alaska in 2022.

 

Discovery: Seattle

Emerald: Seattle

Majestic: Vancouver-Whittier

Sapphire: Vancouver-Whittier

Grand: Vancouver-Whittier

Ruby: San Francisco

Never mind.  Wrong year. Lol

On 10/18/2020 at 7:59 PM, Steelers36 said:

Every Steelers fan knows "The Bus".  I honor him when I tack his number onto my team name.  If it already taken, I might go to #84, or perhaps someone else.  The love and commitment to the game matters as well as performance and results. 

 

And how about that 5-0 record now!

My nickname growing up was Tigger (from Winnie-the-Pooh) because, you know, tiggers like to BOUNCE!  🙂

P.S.  Go Steelers!  I just went from liking the team very much to LOVING them because my son played high school football and basketball with Claypool.  Needless to say, Chase was the best player on the team in both sports.   So, if you ever want to use #11, I'm all for it!  

I'm in too!  We've been thinking about doing this 'cruise' as well so I'm interested in hearing first-hand what procedures they have in place and what food and drink options are available.  Of course, even no food options wouldn't worry us a whole ton - I have occasionally managed to survive without eating for 90 minutes if I've had to.  But eating while cruising is better.  😁  

Curious, if you don't mind my asking, is this a BC Ferries Vacation Package or a DIY trip?  

11 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I was supposed to be boarding Radiance this coming Tuesday.  😞 This was a birthday present for a landmark birthday for my wife. We have replaced it with a luxury AirBnb on the shore of the warmest lake in Canada.  It's about a 5 hour drive.  We're going the week leading to Memorial Day. We could have gone sooner but the weather just isn't warm enough yet. I plan on replicating my cruise experience as much as possible. I bought a case of Pina Colada mix at Costco and an commercial grade blender. I've got a brand new gravity chair that will double as a lounge that I will set on the deck and overlook the lake.  I'm thinking about going out late at night, clipping a towel to the chair so I can curse chair hogs in morning.  When life give you lemons...

  

Very nice lemonade!  My family owned a campsite there while I was growing up.  Happy Birthday to your wife.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you for nice weather and no chair hogs.

2 hours ago, Potstech said:

And all I would have to prove is 2 people took a chartered flight from Atlanta to their destination. And I have.

No, that only proves that some people took charters, but it does not prove that NO ONE took commercial flights which is what you are saying, right? 

5 hours ago, Mikel1733 said:

I called our Princess agent and she said I could not move up to Platinum level as it was after final payment date.  If that is incorrect I'd like to know.  

Yes, that would be correct.  Princess insurance must be added/purchased before final payment.  However, if you have the Standard level insurance I believe that it has 75% coverage for cancel for ant reason.  Reimbursement would be as future cruise credit.

6 hours ago, don't-use-real-name said:

I am not taking this personal although my reply to your post is of a sort of personal nature.

I am not familiar with Don - maybe he does cruise industry critic from down in your Miami area.

I did watch the video in spite of your claim I did not and the bargains are not out of the ordinary for a ship with limited

speed and distance between ports of call. Good - no terrific that she made the TA without issue no bad PR here.

As for Don being biased I only commented on his "T" shirt as being odd commenting on a NCL ship while wearing

a competing cruise line logo shirt - this sort of strikes me as not being fair or neutral in reporting.

And it is not a sad day for commenting about the mechanical issues of the STAR which I have a keen interest in

since I cruised the Panama Canal on her before the Portland OR dry-dock late 2014 - following all of her electrical

issues with azipods and the Australian problem and the continued missed port calls and the now the current issues

with ship swapping. I have watched videos of engine repairs on other ships and it is going to be interesting what

and how the fix is done at Freeport - presuming it will be done in the Bahamas.

I have posted pictures of the STARs azipods for CC members to get a grasp of what the heck are azipods.

Cheerleaders getting bent out of shape - NOT hardly - more likely raving for the quick fix and the return of the STAR

so that NCL has a full boat of options cruising sailing.

My autumn cruise plans are tentative for Canada-New England - this on either the GEM or the DAWN - if the STAR

does not have a timely fix who knows what kind of mechanical wrench is going to be thrown into the mix.

Already the DAWN is in the present ship shuffle.  

Just want to chime in with the view that Don is not biased for or against any cruise line.   He does stories and videos (and sails) on all of them (he's a travel agent) and is very fair and measured.  Despite the RCCL t-shirt he is very fair and neutral.  As a fellow Canadian I'm going to go a bit tongue-in-cheek and joke that his Canadian-ish can go a little too far towards fair and neutral when perhaps it doesn't actually deserve it.  He can be a bit long-winded sometimes, though.  LOL!

20 minutes ago, Howie411 said:

 

The ones on the excursion list are El. Zafiro, Kim Sha or Maho.   There is 1 other one for $34 called great beach bay experience but doesnt list much info.

Great Beach Bay is the beach right by the cruise port.  You can walk to it or you can take the water taxi from the port to the beach (I believe that round-trip is about $7.00 a person).  Once there there many venders/restaurants renting beach chairs/umbrella's - usually about $20.00 for two loungers and an umbrella, though it can vary depending on who you rent from.   You should come out cheaper if you just do it yourself and it's super close and easy.

40 minutes ago, Sunny AZ Girl said:

That does sound odd. We just booked the Celebrity Reflection TA for October 22, 2021 and it has 4 ports out of Rome, including an overnight in Barcelona, 2 ports in France and Tenerife.  So 5 port days. 15 nights. Better deal all around for us. It still is taking 7 days to get from Tenerife to FLL. 

That sounds lovely.  I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time. 

1 hour ago, Host Clarea said:

 

This has been mentioned before and there's been no additional info from the cruise line.

Thanks Bob.  As much as we want to do a TA on the Oasis Class we'll give this a skip.  We were victims of the crane incident on the Oasis 3 weeks before its' TA so we are still looking for a replacement.  🙂

I am confused about the Harmony 2021 TA from Barcelona.  It's the normal 2-week long TA but only has one port stop (Malaga, Spain) instead of the normal 3 or so.  Is the ship just sailing back to North America really slooooowly, or has anyone ever seen seen a situation in these cases where port stops are added later?  It just seems so odd.  

You guys are awesome.  I'm sure one of those reasons is the explanation for his confusion.  I appreciate the help. 

Thank you both so much!   I had a feeling this had to be wrong. 🙂

I am completely new to NCL and have a quick question on the free at sea Beverage Package.  A co-worker has told me that while on his cruise he had the beverage package perk and paid the 20% gratuities/service fees when booking the cruise.  And then also paid 20% gratuity on each drink he got onboard.  That makes no sense to me at all and I was wondering if you experienced NCL'ers could clear this up for me on whether it's true or if my co-worker is just mistaken. 

1 hour ago, Cruise a holic said:

So no matter what time of year, flights get delayed and or cancelled.  It happened to us also many years ago on an alaska cruise coming home.  Canada had a power failure and since our departure was from Vancouver, we had to take a bus to seattle to get a flight home- of course delays going home isn't as bad as missing your cruise. However we were in a rush as we had a family wedding the next day!  

LOL!  I'm sorry, I know what you really meant by this but it still made me giggle. 🙂

1 hour ago, Dan83 said:

Specifically the wedge shaped room on freedom class ships. It appears that it has a little extra square footage. Currently have a balcony booked. Thinking of switching. I enjoy the balcony but really don’t spend a whole lot of time on it. I’m thinking it would be nice to enjoy the view from an air conditioned room instead of sitting/standing out on the balcony. 1864 has opened up and the extra space looks tempting. $500 cheaper to boot. Will I miss the balcony?

We stayed in cabin 1810 on the Freedom and loved it!  And it's not even one of the big ones like you are looking at which would be even better.  It was a great room and looking out the huge windows was amazing.   We were on a back to back with a balcony for the first week and thought that we would miss it the second week, but really did not.   It was so open and bright when the curtains were open.   

3 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

Is this a joke? Why would that excuse be an different than anyone else’s reason to have to move their cruise and having to pay the $50 fee? 

Yes, I'm pretty sure that that post was pure sarcasm. 

You can view the refundable rates by completely finishing a mock booking of a room, including filling out your passenger information.  Once that is done there will be a option near the bottom of the page for choosing the refundable rate and it will tell you in dollars how much more it is adding to your reservation.

I hope that this helps.

3 hours ago, ccm02339 said:

We are booked on Allure Dec 15th and have lost Roatan for Nassau.  Will Stop at Coco Cay, Costa Maya and Cozumel.Husband wants to switch to Freedom out of San Juan to Curacau Aruba Bonaire and St Thomas.  He wants to Scuba in St Thomas bc that was plan for Roatan.  We did sail Freedom 10 years ago and was great but were excited about our first Oasis class ship.  Our kids are 21 and 19

We can change flights but FLL is so much simpler, direct flights and we know what to expect.

Is there good Scuba in Nassau? What else would you recommend?

Is Allure that much better than Freedom?

We had booked Maya Chan and the Cozumel Bar hop, suggestions for Curacau, Aruba or Bonaire?

Anything else I should consider?  I've looked at other Oasis class ships for the week and either itinerary or pricing are not agreeable

Thanks for your help

Sarah 

Although I haven't managed to sail on the Oasis class yet (our TA was cancelled due to falling cranes - sigh), I agree with your husband.  The itinerary on the Freedom out of PR is SOOOOOOOO much better, IMO.   And the Freedom is a wonderful ship. I just did that cruise at the beginning of May and can't even begin to describe what a wonderful time it was and how great all the ports were.  The Oasis class ships seem wonderful but I would wait for a better itinerary and wouldn't choose Nassau over Aruba for one.  🙂

20 minutes ago, donnaab said:

I have switched to NCL and Celebrity for the last few cruises bc of free drink package.  My daughter misses RCCL and wants to do another but the cost of the beverage package is really a factor!  

If I book and then add the beverage package how does this work- I pay for beverage package in full and then call if and when price drops and get an adjustment?  I have regularly done this for cabin price drops but did not realize I could do same for beverage. 

TIA

No, unfortunately, it's not simply an adjustment of the price.  You have to completely cancel the current package you have and order it again at the new price.  You pay in full for the new package and within a few days you will be refunded for the package you cancelled to the original form of payment.  We did this twice before our last sailing and the money we saved re-booking it a couple of times was well worth it.

18 hours ago, Lottacruises said:

 

It's only a four nigit so it may have been ok, may have been....lol

 

This is true.  And you still would have been on a cruise which is never a bad thing - even if did have to give up and sleep in separate beds.  LOL!

1 hour ago, Lottacruises said:

 

I was thinking adventure. I was assigned my cabin today and it turned out to be a 4G, so no upper/lower. 

 

Honestly, I was looking forward to the upper/lower.... Lol

 

Now, Thursday come on down!!!!!

It probably would have only been an adventure for the first couple of  nights and then just got old fast.  LOL!  Congratulations on being assigned a cabin with a real bed.  🙂

23 hours ago, Greyt1 said:

The final straw was the port call in Victoria, BC being wacked from a full, long day, to 7 am to 1:30 pm. We were told it was due to a new Vancouver port rule about passing under the Lyons Bridge at a certain time. Many unhappy passengers, and we were amongst them. The passengers were told that they were actually lucky...they could get off the ship that night in Vancouver, at 8 pm, and enjoy more time in the city. What we heard all around us was the full day in Victoria is what people really wanted, not a late night in Vancouver.  

Hi!  I am from Vancouver and it sounds like the issue might have been tide times in Vancouver Habour.   Ovation is the largest ship to ever pass under the Lions Gate Bridge (I saw the pictures in Hoopster's review and STILL can't believe that it made it!).  There was probably a very limited time period that the ship could get under the bridge and the ship needed to be there when the tides were right.   I'm sorry your time in Victoria was cut short though - it's a very charming city.  🙂

6 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

As if these elevators are not crowded enough already!👎

Totally stupid from RCI!🖕

Are you really this negative about everything in real life as well or is this just a role you play online?

58 minutes ago, KelSny1011 said:

OP - That wasn't a bad experience. That was a minor inconvenience.   You also stated several hours and it ended up only being an hour and a half.  To me it sounds like you went into the trip already annoyed by the fact that they canceled your original cruise.  I'm guessing you were not compensated for that so you went into this trip just looking for a reason to claim compensation.  Doesn't work that way...sorry.

I was also booked on one of the cancelled Oasis cruises (the TA - waaaaaaaaah!!!!!).   The compensation for the cancelled cruises was actually very nice and more than fair.  So, that's not it. 🙂