nolafrank

Except that the one and only reason I’m doing this cruise is that it includes Hong Kong and Shanghai and allows me easy access to fly to China afterwards.  I loved visiting Japan in cherry blossom season, but If China isn’t permitting western visitors I don’t have any interest in this cruise. Period. Hard stop. 

On 4/19/2023 at 4:12 PM, mahdnc said:

 

I assume by paying in full way in advance.

Or by having a credit due to “Lift & Shift” where cancelled cruisers in 2020 - 2022 took cruise credits. 

Good itinerary.  We’ve been to most of the ports except the Malaysia ones (KL is on our wish list) but all good stops. Like others said, all or most these require more time than a single day allows.  But you could spend extra time on the front end in Singapore and back end in Bangkok. 

Cruises to and around Japan are very popular right now, as well as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines.  While you can find some cruises that stop in Hong Kong and Shanghai currently there are very few calling on the port for Beijing (Tiajin).
 

We were in Asia in 2020 when the “Great Disruption” occurred. Had been traveling on our own or with tours in Cambodia and Vietnam and were scheduled on two cruises that ended up being cancelled.  
 

 We currently have an Oceania cruise booked for Feb of ‘24 (and a Chinese land tour afterward) , but we are thinking about cancelling for two reasons.  First, the lessons we learned from 2020 include the fact that we as cruisers have no rights if the cruise line wants to totally change their itinerary.  Before Celebrity finally canceled our cruise scheduled from Hong Kong to Shanghai in March of 2020 they had changed literally every port—including embarkation and debarkation ports— on the itinerary except one!  So the original March 2020 cruise was supposed to include Hong Kong, Taipei, Taijin (2 overnights), Shanghai, and Seoul. Celebrity’s proposed revised itinerary was changed to start in Singapore and end in Tokyo and was mostly Thailand and Vietnam—places we had just visited. The trip in no way resembled the original cruise we signed up for.  The itinerary changes weren’t  being made in transit but weeks prior to the scheduled start date.  Hong Kong was still “open” at the time and yet they changed our embarkation point to Singapore—a city half the size, which at the time had twice the number of Covid cases as HK. The beginning and ending ports were nowhere near the original start/stop ports—thousands of miles apart from what was originally planned and their offer of $500 airfare adjustment didn’t begin to cover the cost of business class flights. Okay, so knowing they can totally change ports without recourse leads us to the 2nd and overriding reason why we might change.

2nd) Current political tensions in the area and other things out of our control. We want to visit China and we want to visit Taiwan and we want to visit South Korea.  We aren’t interested in an “Asia” cruise, we want those countries specifically.  Trying to read the tea leaves about China and Taiwan is a fool’s errand but there are discouraging words being exchanged. Our State Dept still has a level 3 travel advisory for China and any time an American politician visits Taipei, Beijing sends out more warships and aircraft for “exercises”. The world’s safety is more important than another retirement cruise, but for me, it means keeping an eye out for regional tensions that would cause cruise lines to cancel or countries to close borders.  We’re keeping our reservations in place for now, but we have a plan A and plan B backup just in case. 
 

would love to hear others perspective on visiting China right now. 

The extent that the cruise line can change the itinerary and the lack of recourse the cruiser has was brought home to us in the spring of 2020. We had a cruise booked on Celebrity Millennium  scheduled from Hong Kong to Shanghai on March 14 of that year. We were already in Asia when Covid travel restrictions started to hit China. Celebrity informed us that literally EVERY PORT was changed including the embarkation point, the disembarkation point, and the ports that were of interest: Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, and Seoul.  Celebrity changed the embarkation point from HK to Singapore and disembarkation from Shanghai to Tokyo and ALL PORTS  in between with no compensation for flight changes they wanted us to make. Remember this was all happening before we were due to set sail.  How is that even the same cruise?  We had flights, hotel, etc and for several weeks Celebrity refused to refund those who wanted to cancel and it was absolutely maddening.  I never understood how that was possible but my TA and I wrote numerous requests that were denied. 
 

Well, eventually as the pandemic evolved the industry decided refunds and credits were due and we were made whole but that episode was an eye opener. You have NO rights on an international cruise except what the cruise line wants to grant.  Scary indeed! 

We are on the Brilliance right now and I just did a speed test (http://www.speedtest.net) and measured 2.12 mbps download which I’d have to say is pretty good—MUCH better than the service on NCL that we had on the transatlantic coming over. It’s spotty at times, but Royal is so much better than what I’ve experienced on the other lines.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I would strong consider hiring a professional, local, private guide with extensive knowledge. With so much to see and do, a guide can help you prioritize what’s important, purchase bypass-the-line tickets, and provide unique insight that only a local can. Knowing how to navigate the museums to maximize your time, selecting the best vantage points, finding out of the way gems, are all reasons to hire a local.

You don’t have to have a guide full-time, But I’d recommend at least two half day sessions. If you can share the cost with another couple (or two)the price is pretty affordable.

We were in Rome with another couple for 6 days in 2016 and had the good fortune to have a wonderful guide that can recommend without reservations: https://www.toromewithdino.com. Dino has a Ph.D. In history, worked for both the Vatican and Italian Public Television and provided the most amazing tours we have ever had anywhere—tailored to a list we had provided in advance. He had been booked through our travel agent who had extensive previous experience with Dino and other customers, but you can book him directly or through Viator. On one day, Dino provided a driver and van and on the other day it was just walking.

Dino also arranged for a guide in Florence (a young lady with a PhD in Art History) and in Florence.

We are going back to Rome this fall with one of my adult daughters and her boyfriend, and will be hiring Dino again. One site we look forward to visiting on our next visit is Ostia Antica, which Rick Steves called the most under appreciated attraction in all of Italy. Good luck and eat lots of gelato! Rome is my favorite city!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We live in New Orleans and i offer a lot of opinionated suggestions about where to eat and things to do. Please by all means walk around in the French Quarter, but get out and see other areas of the city as well.

Among the things not to be missed are the National WW II Museum and a ride on the street cars—especially the St Charles Line. Stop along the way and do a self-guided walking tour, one of which is here, http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/self-guided-garden-district, passing by Archie Manning’s home, Anne Rice’s former home, Lafayette Cemetery. Have lunch at Commander’s Palace, the flagship of the Brennan family restaurants, where Paul Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse, and Frank Brigtsen, among others got their starts. Martinis are only 25cents each here during weekday lunch and be sure and have the bread pudding soufflé for dessert.

As far as choosing other restaurants, I have three local web sites that I recommend. The first is the most comprehensive and is run by a local food critic who has been in business around 40 years: http://www.nomenu.com. Restaurants are listed alphabetically, by area of the city, and by cuisine. Recommendations tend to lean towards old-school New Orleans, but you can’t go wrong with any place rated 3 stars or higher.

http://Www.nola.eater.com, tends to be more trendy and reports on what’s hot at the time. My daughters’ generation tend to use this pretty heavily. Finally, the local newspapers are good sources for restaurant references. Brett Anderson, who is the restaurant critic for the Times-Picayune compiles an annual Top 10 list. And while all such lists always omit favorites, this is a very solid ten: http://www.nola.com/dining-guide/index.ssf/2017/11/best_restaurants_new_orleans_2.html.

My favorite restaurants and/or quintessential dishes would include:

Brigtsen’s, Clancy’s or Upperline: Great examples of neighborhood Creole Bistros. Among the best in the city.

Commanders Palace: mentioned above and in top 10

Parkway Bakery —Go here for a roast beef or fried shrimp poor boy

Liuzzas By the Track—bbq shrimp Poor boy and gumbo

Katie’s. A casual neighborhood fave

In the warehouse District: Peche or Cochon. James Beard winners and unique.

In the French Quarter:

If you want fine dining one night One of these 100-year old institutions (jacket required for dinner): Antoine’s, Arnaud’s or Galatoire’s

Bayona, K-Paul’s or Nola for casual upscale dining, esp at lunch

Acme Oyster House (oyster poboy or bbq oysters), Johnny’s Poboys, or Gumbo Shop. I also like Coops Place (a dive, but the only place in the entire city where I’ll actually order jambalaya).

Among some of the earlier recommendations:

I’m sorry but I would never recommend Mulates. It’s a Tourist Trap for conventioneers and cruise ship patrons. Think Bubba Gumps with a Cajun Band. You will Never, Ever, at no time find a local recommending the place.

The Joint is great, solid bbq, but New Orleans isn’t really known as a bbq city (though this is one of the places that started the trend to change that).

Pere Antoine: never heard of it and it’s not among the hundreds of restaurants that Tom Fitzmorris has ever reviewed, so I’d tend to leery myself. There are a lot of places in the quarter that strictly cater to the tourists. I suspect this may be one of this, but looking at some of the pictures in Yelp, it looks worth a try at lunch if you’re close by. Otherwise, there are many other solid places to visit

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We were on a short 5-day cruise out of Tampa a couple of years ago and there were a number of college spring-breakers (with drink packages) on board. At least 3 were put off in Grand Cayman for jumping from balcony to balcony. A fourth was put off in Cozumel for head-butting a glass-enclosed art display.

Sent from my iPad using Forums