Tin can

Our first cruise was on Enchantment back in 2001 so looking forward to following along.

Just out of interest as a UK website booker why aren't suites included in the US refundable deposits terms and conditions. Can you price match on suites from the US?

I don't think they would either. Its stated as a mechanical dry dock but lots of rumours that there may be some smartening up passenger side at the same time. I'd be very surprised personally if the dry dock included a Playmakers but that was what somebody was told apparently. That would be great if you could report back.

Someone on the 'blog' forum has posted they are just off Explorer and were told during the cruise carpets, decoration and a Playmakers on the promenade being installed during the dry dock. I'd be surprised about a Playmakers but that's what they have posted they were told so who knows.

100%..... 😀

Interesting, I have never been on a Mein Shiff ship so I can't comment really. The TUI cruises are great in the UK for the money but not on a level with Royal, P & O or MSC.

I'm not sure I would put TUI 4*+ with Cunard and above Royal personally but its all opinions I guess.

Thanks for posting this, we have been looking at Bodden tours for our 2024 cruise and that looks perfect.

I can't offer any advice but like you we are on Explorer next August around the Med and have gone for one of the Panoramic Ocean View Suites. The views look fantastic!

If she is coming to Europe for a maintenance dry dock you would have thought they would have worked it around her TA mid April for her summer season from Venice. Why send her back to Miami for four weeks to have to go back again to Europe?

What maintenance are they going to do though that takes 6 weeks? I'm no maritime expert but there must be something really mechanically wrong with her for it to take that long. As you say the Allure full amplification wasn't planned to take much longer and just my opinion you don't cancel approx $27m of cruises just for maintenance. We shall see though I guess.

A lot on here from the UK book on the US website and currency swings are the only issue I can see. The way the £ is to the $ things can only get better from a UK perspective so I don't think that is an issue anymore.

There are some absolute bargain prices for European cruises in 2024 on the US website at the moment if you fancy a change. Even though based in England we have just booked one. I know what you mean though, we are booked on Anthem out of NY and Harmony out of Galveston. It obviously involves flights from the UK but we have to mix things up a bit. Its first world problems but you get as fed up about the same Caribbean ports as we do about the same Mediterranean ones.

Now that's a proper use of a Diamond voucher 👍

We have had 'All Inclusive' promotions here in the UK with drinks packages and gratuities included. More marketing spin than anything else though as the price in reality reflected in most cases what was included but the 'Free' tag was a good sales tactic pre covid.

Thank you for that, you make a good point about it 'seeming' simple. Would you always recommend a guide for Jerusalem, another option is we visit on a land holiday from the UK. We always tour ourselves but I think with so much religious history we may miss some important facts and arranging entrance to some of the important sites may be difficult. Thank you again for your advice.

Thank you for confirming that, its very useful. I do quite fancy DIY Jerusalem as it seems straight forward from Ashdod and I dont think it suits large bus sightseeing. A ship tour needs considering though as nothing would be worse than being stuck on the ship. I'm wondering if a suite concierge can help getting off the ship like they can with normal tenders. I have a rough idea what 3no Jerusalem ship tours would cost and that cost added to our stateroom purchase for the cruise we are looking at wouldn't be too far off upgrading to a qualifying suite. Thank you again for your quick response to the query.

Thank you for explaining that the Royal Caribbean disembarkation process is similar to tender tickets. Quite a few posts mention issues but not how it actually worked. We are looking for 2024 and quite fancy Jerusalem DIY from Ashod. I don't suppose you remember roughly how much full day RCI Jerusalem excursions were? My guess is quite expensive so just trying to do some quick maths to see whether putting that cost to get a suite (and a concierge giving out tickets) would be close enough to consider.

This is an old thread that I found and hopefully your still about. I'm curious why it took so long to get off the ship in Israel as you have confirmed what I have read elsewhere that independent tour folk have missed their trips. I'm a bit confused at the requirement for a ticket to leave the ship. I'm looking at a 2024 Holy Land trip that only stops in Ashod for a day, Jerusalem DIY is possible from there but not if stuck on the ship until late afternoon.

Thanks for the heads up about Voyager on 19th August, its an interesting itinerary. To me Voyager seems expensive and by the looks of it a significant amount of cabins have already been sold presuming that it only went on sale last week. Perhaps this is normal for Holy Land cruises.

I don't know if this has any significance to the dry dock planned for Explorer but Europe 2024 on Explorer is considerably more expensive than the same itinerary in 2023. Our same cruise would be 75% more expensive. General post covid price increase or something interesting confirmed happening to her during the 8 week dry dock early 2023?

Explorer to Greece out of Ravenna is an interesting example to use as the prices for 2024 are just crazy. We are on this sailing in 2023 in a Grand Suite for not much more than the GBP equivalent of the $3400 you mention you were quoted for an inside. Generally we find that US departing cruises for us in the UK are cheaper booked on the UK website than the US one. We have booked quite a few cruises on the US site and no problem with needing a US address or needing a US credit card. The problem we had was when RCI cancelled one of the cruises as paying in $ on a UK credit card was not an issue but the refund back in dollars was.

It's certainly being promoted by travel agents even here in the UK. We are sailing from Galveston in 2024 on the recommendation of a TA selling the new port, Harmony and some different ports (for us) in Mexico and Honduras. Been to New York, Chicago, Florida, San Francisco and Vegas a good few times but never been to Texas and really looking forward to visiting and sailing with Texans.

There doesn't seem to be any strategy for this. I have placed minimum bids, quite a few maximum bids and everything in between but had no luck. There was a thread recently where someone got something like an owners suite from a balcony for about $50 so I have no idea how the bids are reviewed or selected.

Thats very sad about George Smith .... we were in a suite on Navigator many years ago and got friendly with the people in the Royal Suite after meeting in the concierge lounge. They had a party one night in the Royal Suite and the wet bar was fully stocked and run by RCI servers. There was certainly no restrictions on alcohol that night and most of the senior officers and the captain were in attendance (some likely not drinking). The family were Texan oil barons or something like that so it was all very interesting to an average family from the UK 😀