ireashmott

1 minute ago, mapleleaves said:

IIRC there are only 3 helicopter companies in Juneau.  Northstar Trekking, Coastal, and Temsco.

Contact them to see when their season begins.  Usually the end of May is when things start to ramp up.  And most glacier activities have ended by mid Aug due to snow melt.

 

A great resource for you to check is the virtual visitor guide provided by Juneau Visitor Information. 

Juneau Virtual Visitor's Guide | Attractions & Things To Do (traveljuneau.com)

Thanks so much! Will do.

Thank you. I reviewed it. He did a pre-cruise drive-in glacier walk, which isn’t what we are looking for. We are looking for a shore excursion helicopter glacier hike and ice climb. It’s a great write up though.

Ten years ago we cruised to Alaska with NCL and will be going back again in 2024. Last time we went, we did a shore excursion of a helicopter glacier trek and ice climb in Juneau. Loved it and want to do the same again.

We are currently booked for May 2024 and there only seems to be short glacier tours, with no ice climbs, being provided by NCL. 
 

Recommendations for a private glacier trek and ice climb excursion in May?

If May is not good for an ice climb we can change our booking to October. 
 

Thank you!

5 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

You may want to also ask about private excursions on the Alaska forum.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/33-alaska/

Thanks! Will do.

5 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

It might be too early to see all of the excursions for next year.

Yeah, for sure.

The one that seems right, though, is already posted as available for the September and October 2024 cruises.

Ten years ago we cruised to Alaska with NCL and will be going back again in 2024. Last time we went, we did a shore excursion of a helicopter glacier trek and ice climb in Juneau. Loved it and want to do the same again.

We are currently booked for May 2024 and there only seems to be short glacier tours, with no ice climbs. On the NCL site I found one exercusion for a “Helicopter Glacier Trek” which implies (but doesn’t expressly state), it is a glacier trek and ice climb. This excursion though is only available for September and October NCL Alaskan cruises. 
 

Is there a glacier trek and ice climb excursion through NCL or privately in May?
If not, we can change our booking to October. If we do change, recommendations for a glacier trek and ice climb excursion? 
 

Thank you!

On 5/6/2020 at 4:32 PM, mommy2tati said:

For those who have already received their refund of the cruise fare, have you also received the refund for your extras like shore excursions, etc? If so, when did you get that refund in relation to your cruise fare refund? 

We have received our refund for the fare (one refund for the deposit and one for the balance), but have not received it for the shore ex or other purchases (internet, bevs, etc). 

We were supposed to sail on March 16th and we received the fare refunds on May 5th (after an intial Canadian refund glitch).

On 4/28/2020 at 1:04 PM, ireashmott said:

 

So apparently I spoke to soon. Today our Visa posted a backdated charge that reversed the refund I had received for one of the balance payments. So now we only have 2 refunds (one for each of the deposits) and no refunds for either of the balance payments. I am not sure why Carnival would have reversed a refund, but I am not a happy. 

As an update, I spoke with Carnival today. They said that they had incorrectly processed all refunds for Canadians. So all Canadians who have received a refund, it will be reversed and they will see the refund correctly posted in the next week or so. 

They were posted as refunds on April 15th and then reversed this week.

I have emailed their customer care team and will try calling them tomorrow when they re-open. 

No, we didn’t previously dispute the charge with our credit card company. 

I can’t think of why they would reverse the refund. 

Carnival has now reversed all of the refunds that had been posted to our credit card. Anyone else have this issue? 

We had two cabins booked for a March 16th sailing. We cancelled on March 13th pursuant to the policy and asked for a full refund. 

Completely agree with the previous poster. We love this itinerary, the size of the ship and the aminities, etc. 

The balconies are limited and brutal due to the weight of the door. 

On 4/20/2020 at 8:49 AM, ireashmott said:

We received part of our refund. Posted to the credit card on Wednesday April 15th.

 

We had two cabins booked for a March 16th sailing. We cancelled on March 13th pursuant to the policy and asked for a full refund. 

 

So far, we have had 3 refunds: 2 refunds for each of the deposits and 1 refund for one of the balance payments. We are still owed 1 refund for one of the balance payments (the larger one), the refund for the excursions, and the refund for the internet/bevs. 

 

The credit card had been replaced with a different type and account number (same bank though), but the refund still went through. 

 

Hope this info helps. 

 

 

So apparently I spoke to soon. Today our Visa posted a backdated charge that reversed the refund I had received for one of the balance payments. So now we only have 2 refunds (one for each of the deposits) and no refunds for either of the balance payments. I am not sure why Carnival would have reversed a refund, but I am not a happy. 

Horizon docked in Grand Turk. 

We received part of our refund. Posted to the credit card on Wednesday April 15th.

We had two cabins booked for a March 16th sailing. We cancelled on March 13th pursuant to the policy and asked for a full refund. 

So far, we have had 3 refunds: 2 refunds for each of the deposits and 1 refund for one of the balance payments. We are still owed 1 refund for one of the balance payments (the larger one), the refund for the excursions, and the refund for the internet/bevs. 

The credit card had been replaced with a different type and account number (same bank though), but the refund still went through. 

Hope this info helps. 

Did you cancel it using the med reason or request form? Or just a traditional cancel? 

We are on the same cruise. It is cancelled. You’ll be getting an email. You will get to select refund.

We are supposed to cruise from San Juan on Sunday and were just noticed via an automated telephone message that our cruise is cancelled.

So sad. We were still willing to cruise and were all packed for this weekend. Now because of this fairly wide net, no cruise for us. It is probably for the best, but still hard.

We submitted the form and did a refund request, but no confirmation email yet. Anyone get anything confirming yet?

For those wondering why the refund - we already have our next cruise booked and due to the early bird deal and CDN dollar tanking, rebooking doesn’t make sense. 

26 minutes ago, Nic6318 said:

Hi J.C.

 

Just want to throw this out for you to consider.

 

Most people, especially in the Caribbean, don't use the cruise lines excursions. I am not saying that the excursions offered by the cruise lines don't get booked up, but what many have found to be case was that there are many reputable and reliable excursion operators that offer similar or better excursions, generally for a much lower price than the cruise lines...

Could not agree more!

Thank you so much!

Just wanted to see if anyone who recently cruised  had experience with how the childcare program is doing. Is it unchanged? Is there still dinner coverage?

Love our kids, but also love a bit of adulting time too!

There are a few deciding factors - 1) your age and medical history; 2) the cost that you would incur if you accepted Carnival’s postponement offer; 3) the cost that you would incur if you didn't cancel and the worst happened; and 4) your tolerance for port changes, port cancellations, and a quarantine. 

You will know the answer to the first and your doctor could advise. 

You should figure out what the cost would be. Maybe Carnival has you covered for the cruise, but you have flights, pre-cruise hotel, private excursions, etc. to tally up for the total cost of postponing. 

You should figure out what it would cost you if you went and you were delayed or quarantined. You might need an extra hotel because the embarkation is delayed, you might need to change your flight home because the disembarkation is delayed, and/or you might miss 14 days of work because of quarantine. 

As for some facts, here are some of the occurrences: 

• multiple cruise ships from various lines have been denied from calling at ports including Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Grand Turk, Tortola, and St. Lucia, this resulted in many lines rescheduling to avoid some of these ports
• Carnival Panorama: On 7 March 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) halted passengers disembarking from the cruise ship Carnival Panorama docked at Long Beach Cruise Terminal in California when a female passenger was reported to be sick.^[The sick passenger was transported to a hospital to be tested for SARS-CoV-2 and all passengers were held on board the ship pending test results. The test came back negative for coronavirus late that evening, so disembarkation was scheduled to resume the next morning. Carnival Panorama was returning from a trip to Mexico with scheduled stops at Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán, and Puerto Vallarta, which were also scheduled stops for Grand Princess during the previous month.
• Grand Princess: On 7 March, Princess Cruises confirmed that Grand Princess was still at sea roughly 50 miles (80 km) from San Francisco, and that it was scheduled to dock in Oakland on 9 March 2020, with US passengers being transferred to facilities on land and crew being quarantined and treated on board
• Royal Princess: A crew member on Grand Princess had transferred to Royal Princess fifteen days before, the CDC issued a "no-sail order" on 8 March 2020, prompting Princess Cruises to cancel the ship's seven-day cruise to Mexico before it departed Los Angeles.
• Costa Luminosa: On 8 March, an Italian woman was quarantined in Puerto Rico while being tested for the virus. She had arrived in Puerto Rico via a cruise ship that had departed from Fort Lauderdale.

See: https://www.cruisehive.com/three-carnival-cruise-ships-avoid-calls-to-grand-turk-temporarily/38238

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_outbreak_on_cruise_ships#Grand_Princess

I believe that the letter was released as a means of slowing down the cancellations and appeasing shareholders. 

At the end of the day, with the FCC aproach, they will still have your money. They just get it at a later date. They are also left with the option of keeping your money on the later cruise, even if COVID-19 is still a problem. 

I also suspect that when cruises now face delays and changes, they will take the position that we all got $200 in advance as compensation, so nothing further will be coming our way. As such, they may have effectively positioned themselves to avoid further customer care payouts. 

I have used them both. Depending the ship and cruise, your internet can vary. When internet is limited premium has a bit of an advantage. I found that they throttled the usage so that, at peak times, regular got about 15 - 30 minutes of high speed and premium got about 20 - 50 minutes.