tcc8v

The premium package includes the nonzero package whereas the classic package does not.  If I can't exchange the classic package to the nonzero package, it is cheaper to upgrade to premium than to buy a fresh nonzero package.

I was booked on a Celebrity fare that includes the classic drink package.  My wife and I don't drink much.  Can we exchange this package for the lower cost zero proof package?  Or do we have to upgrade (and pay more) to the premium package.

In the alternative, on my last Royal Caribbean cruise, my Celebrity elite status entitled me to 4 free drinks per day.  Is there a similar benefit on Celebrity?

On 12/8/2022 at 6:27 PM, tcc8v said:

More about leaving ship:  In previous posts, I mentioned that I booked back to back cruises in Japan (with stops in Taiwan and Korea).  I contacted Holland America and they approved by disembarking in Kagoshima and boarding 5 days later in Nagasaki and also disembarking in Hualien (Taiwan) and boarding the next day in Keelung (also in Taiwan).  But they pointed out that as I will be disembarking and reembarking, I would have to present recent covid tests in Nagasaki and Keelung. And if my tests were positive, I would not be allowed to reembark.  Their sailings in Japan require covid tests before embarkation.

 

Apparently one does not need to retest if one gets off at a scheduled port stop and returns to the ship the same day.  I am not sure what I want to do.

On 11/7/2022 at 6:57 PM, tcc8v said:

I am on a 28 day cruise around Japan (Westerdam, March 13-April 10).  This is actually two 14 day cruises, both roundtrip Yokohama, with a small discount for booking as one combined cruise.  The cruise stops at Kagoshima, at the southern tip of Kyushu, on March 25, then heads north to Yokohama, before returning to Nagasaki, again on Kyushu, on March 30.  I think I would like to see more of Kyushu.  Will HAL object if I get off the boat at Kagoshima and return to it at Nagasaki.  My cabin does not change for the entire 28 days.

I called the HAL customer service line with this question, along with many others.  I was on the phone for quite a while and in the end I was told I will get an email from "ship inventory".  (The other questions were handled immediately.)  I had previously sent a message on the HAL website and got a form response that was not to the point, so I was not optimistic that I would, in fact, get a response.

Today I got an email response (with a formal letter attached) that approved my request for disembark (at Kagoshima) and embark (at Nagasaki) and, separately, to disembark (at Hualien) and embark (at Keelung).  I am really happy.

As others have pointed out, this was not a simple request.  So I am not surprised that this request took a while for response.  But I am very pleased with HAL customer service (at least on the phone).

I hope the "inventory" in "ship inventory" does not refer to the guests!

7 hours ago, USN59-79 said:

 

We probably have a lot in common other than our love for cruising in Asia.  Sara and I will celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary shortly after we board the ship.  I was living in Taipei from 1961 to 1963 and wanted to learn Chinese.  Sara worked for the National Taiwan Art Center and wanted to practice English.  We met through her cousin and exchanged language lessons twice a week.  Of course she was a better student than I.  We live near Seattle, so we will be taking the Westerdam back to Seattle on May 7.

Ray

I have a friend in Taipei.  I met him while I was a student at National Taiwan U in 1970.  Anyway, he will meet me in Hualien and, if allowed, take me to Keelung.  Anyway in 1970 the only way to Hualien from Taipei/Keelung involved taking a bus part of the way.  The road was very narrow and only one way.  Military posts on both ends of the road made sure that all the traffic went in one direction at a time.  From the bus, if you were on the ocean side, and looked out the window, you would not be able to see the road!  It was quite frightening, but I am sure that by now, it is much less so.

Biker19 is correct: it is Enchantment and it sails from Baltimore.  Usually during midwinter, we make a trip to the beach and try meet with a Myrtle Beach friend.  Last year we stayed in Carolina Beach NC.  But recently I discovered RCI cruises out of Baltimore that were very attractively priced and I imagine they often stop in Charleston on their way south.  We live close to Baltimore and I am thinking that cruising out of Baltimore might be an easy alternative (and still see my friend in a Charleston stop).

I am on a Royal cruise with a stop in Charleston SC.  I have a friend who lives in SC and I would like to visit him during this port stop.  Is it possible to arrange to bring him onboard during the port stop?

On 11/8/2022 at 12:51 AM, USN59-79 said:

We have done something similar.  We stopped in Keelung and were scheduled to stop in Hong Kong 3 or  4 days later.  My DW wanted to stay with her family in Taipei a few days and meet the ship in Hong Kong.  We asked permission the day before Keelung.  The front office arranged for Taiwan customs to come aboard to OK what she was taking ashore and she turned in her key card before she debarked the ship.  I then met her at the airport in Hong Kong.  Worked out fine.  They didn't charge her gratuities for the days she was off the ship.

Thanks, this post gives me hope that my plans to leave the ship Hualien to Keelung, and also Kagoshima to Nagasaki, should work.  Indeed hopefully customs won't be involved because both land portions are within the same country so maybe customs won't need to be involved.

I am inclined to assume it will work and book hotel reservations.  I tend to make such reservations on Expedia.  If I need to change such reservations, is it easy to access them from Japan?  I am afraid I will be directed to an expedia site in Japan that won't know about my reservations.

USN59-79 you and I seem to have similar tastes in cruises.  I think you and I will share 14 days of my 28 day cruise and I would enjoy meeting you.  I am a 75 Chinese-American, 6' and 175 lbs, with an athletic build.  My wife is from Taiwan, 5'4" and 105 lbs.  

Thanks for the info.

This cruise also has overnight stops in Osaka and Kobe.  I assume that I can spend the overnights in locations besides the ship.  Am I correct that for overnight stops, I am only required to return by the 'all aboard' time on the second day? 

I have been looking at hotel prices in Japan.  The high flying US dollar certainly makes Japan very inexpensive.  It is easy to prepay the reservations at today's exchange rates.

I am on a 28 day cruise around Japan (Westerdam, March 13-April 10).  This is actually two 14 day cruises, both roundtrip Yokohama, with a small discount for booking as one combined cruise.  The cruise stops at Kagoshima, at the southern tip of Kyushu, on March 25, then heads north to Yokohama, before returning to Nagasaki, again on Kyushu, on March 30.  I think I would like to see more of Kyushu.  Will HAL object if I get off the boat at Kagoshima and return to it at Nagasaki.  My cabin does not change for the entire 28 days.

22 hours ago, zhuangcorp said:

Wow, there is a hidden staff food location?

 

I'm surprised there haven't been cases of guests sneaking into the staff food locations and eating with the staff. 

I once took a ‘cruise’ on a commercial ship that doubled as an oceanographic research vessel.  The cruise started in Reunion, off the east coast of Africa, and ended in Surabaya, Indonesia.  There was a pretty strong class system on board that was reflected in the dining arrangements and is somewhat reminiscent of what you see on cruise ships.

The scientists and the upper level officers ate together in the main dining room and we ate French food.  The higher level staff, bridge and engineers, all white, ate in the same main dining room, but in a separated area, and with the same menu.  These two groups did not mingle.  The lower level staff, all black African, ate in a separate dining area and ate African food.

I made a request to try the African menu in the African staff dining area.  This was unprecedented and required several days advance notice.  In the end myself and one other scientist were seated at a head table facing all the African staff.  I just wanted to eat in the African staff dining room without commotion, but it was not to be.

On modern cruise ships, guests are not permitted in staff areas and an attempt to sneak into the staff dining area would not be favorably looked on.  But it seems to me that there is a class system that is just as rigid as what I observed on the scientific cruise.  The one difference I have observed in my 25 years of cruising is that the various classes of staff are more racially mixed than a quarter century ago.

8 hours ago, USN59-79 said:

We boarded the Westerdam on 1 February 2020 in Hong Kong for a 42 day cruise and had to leave her in Cambodia within two weeks.  We have booked her again for 42 days starting 27 March 2023 in Yokohama and ending in Seattle.  Think we will know by this December whether or not it will happen.  Not only Japan has to open to cruise ships; either Taiwan or Korea will have to open also as Japan has laws similar to our PVSA.

Good grief — you were on the Westerdam as it searched high and low for a port.  I don’t deal well with uncertainty so I would have found that cruise extremely unnerving.  I had HAL flight arrangements to Beijing on Feb. 21, 2020.  During the time you were floating around SE Asia, HAL never rerouted my flights, so I assumed that HAL did not expect its Feb. 28 cruise would actually depart (HAL promised to make all flight changes for those that booked HAL airfare).

I am hoping to go on the Westerdam from March 13 - Apr. 10, 2023.  Maybe we will meet there.

The original cruise had 4 consecutive ports Kagoshima, Naha, Ishigaki, Keeling that exactly match a cruise I took (but northbound) in March 1970. The earlier cruise was 3rd class on a banana boat.  I am too old to withstand the indignities (it was much worse than 3rd class in the movie Titanic) of the earlier trip but was looking forward to repeating the earlier itinerary.  The great coincidence is that my niece got married in Taipei on the evening we were supposed to dock in Keelung.

So the Westerdam is supposed to go to the same ports, but not consecutively, between Mar. 13 - Apr. 10, 2023.  My niece did, of course, get married, but maybe I can visit with them on the 2023 cruise.

1 hour ago, USN59-79 said:

I am surprised that you still have FCC from that cruise.  We were also on it and received the FCC.  I applied it to a similar cruise on the Noordam, but that one was cancelled.  We have finally booked the Westerdam again for 2023, but the FCC has expired.  Since they did refund our money, I am not too concerned about the expired FCC.

The original FCC expired in early 2021, but I asked HAL to extend it.  So, with the extension, I had to book by Dec. 31, 2021 and sail by Dec. 31, 2022.  My son was expecting his first child for early 2022, and he lives in Seattle.  So we booked the last Alaskan cruise in 2022 (the Eurodam on Oct. 1) so that we could also visit our grandson.  We hope that by then the CV will have died down, or at least my grandson will have developed some immunity.

We were afraid to book another Asian cruise (the original Westerdam cruise was originally out of Shanghai, and then moved to Yokohama) until the CV situation cleared up.  Of course Shanghai is still closed to tourists.  Yokohama is open for tourists, but with severe restrictions.  I have my eyes on an HAL Japan cruise in Mar. 2023, but I guess I have to wait until Japan opens more for tourism.

I have read here that if the price of a cruise has dropped one can get it repriced: in cash if before final payment or in OBC if (as in my case) final payment has been made.  I booked my cruise during a period when HAL offered free gratuities.  If I request repricing at a time when free gratuities are not offered, do I lose the free gratuities?

I used primarily FCC that arose from a cancelled Feb 28, 2020 Westerdam cruise.  At that time HAL offered a full cash refund PLUS a 100% FCC.  As a result I am paying so little for this cruise that I have felt greedy to request repricing and have not done so.  This question is more out of curiosity and not an actual action item.

Doesn't everyone on a cruise agree to a contract with the cruise company?  One wonders if the contract for a vaccinated cruise can require a passenger to get a vaccination, present proof to the cruise company, and waive any rights under any Florida law that prevents companies from requiring proof of vaccination.

1 hour ago, DougH said:

So sorry to see her go as she was my favorite. Was supposed to sail on her in May 2020 for a Coastal followed by Alaska. I was lucky enough to sail on the 50th Anniversary cruise with the entire Love Boat cast, this one one of my favorite cruises.

You can always sail on the Sirena with Oceana!  According to Wikipedia, the Pacific Princess, formerly known as R three, is a sister ship to R four.  R four was renamed Tahitian Princess and later Ocean Princess.  It was sold in 2016 to Oceana.

When I read about Pacific Princess, I thought it was the boat that we had sailed on.  But we sailed on the Tahitian and Ocean Princesses.  I agree there was much charm in these smaller boats.

I have happy news to report.  My wife and I were on a Feb. 29, 2020 cruise of the Westerdam that was cancelled by HAL.  We were offered BOTH a full refund and a FCC.  The FCC had a use by date of Feb. 18, 2021.  The HAL website says that such dates have been extended until Dec. 31, 2021.

We did not know if the extension applied to us since our FCC is in addition to a full cash refund.  But HAL customer service just confirmed that it does!

There is a news article on cruise critic about new CDC crew requirements that must be satisfied 28 days before the ship can sail in US waters.  They are extremely onerous unless the ship is “green”.  If you follow a link in that article, you will find a list of ships and their current status.

All the listed ships are “green” except for Grandeur which is “red”.  No ships owned by CCL are listed, so I don’t quite know what to make of this list.  But RCL lets Grandeur have “red” status, so this is not a good omen for its future.

In my experience with Holland America, which is jointly managed with Princess, my web HAL itinerary and HAL flight arrangements did not reflect reality.  I think that while Princess/HAL did not know what would happen with my sailing, they changed nothing.

i was originally booked on the Westerdam, departing from Shanghai on Feb. 29, 2020 arriving in Hong Kong on Mar. 14.  My HAL flight arrangements were Delta to Beijing on Feb. 22 and return from HKG on American on Mar. 14.

At some point in January, HAL changed the itinerary to round trip Yokohama.  We were told that HAL would rebook our flights to the new itinerary.  By the end of January, Delta stopped flying to Beijing, American stopped flying to Hong Kong, and if I managed to go to Beijing, I would not have been allowed on the Westerdam (because people who had been to China were barred from boarding).  In early February, the Prime Minister  of Japan, in response to a question about the Diamond Princess, announced that the Westerdam would be barred from Yokohama.

Every time I called HAL about my cruise and flights I was told that they are still working on rebooking the Feb. 15 cruise, but would get to me shortly.

Finally on Feb. 16, I was notified my cruise was cancelled.  I immediately called AA to get a refund of my premium seat charges.  I was told by AA that my reservation for the nonexistent flight from HKG had never been cancelled by HAL.  Notice that Feb, 16 is only six days prior to my HAL scheduled flight to Beijing.

So I think that until Princess is sure what they are going to do with your sailing, you may not be able to find out anything useful from Princess.

By the way, I got my refund from HAL in less than a week.  In fact, everything I paid for this trip (mainly to HAL and Expedia, and some insurance company) was quickly refunded except for the costs of the Chinese visa.  In addition to a cash refund, I also got some FCC from HAL that I am not confident of using before it expires in Feb. 2021.

So except for missing the trip of a lifetime, that can never be replicated, I am a happy camper.

I have an FCC that has a must sail, and must book, date in Feb. 2021 from a cancelled Westerdam cruise.  It looks like there will be almost no inventory to choose from.  Does the must sail (= must book) date get extended?

4 minutes ago, Pierlesscruisers said:

 

I fully believe that any decision as to when cruise lines will begin to cruise is completely beyond the ability of the lines themselves to determine and is wholly dependent upon the various countries around the world and the impact that the virus will have on each one.  Heck, the way it's going in the US right now, we may be the last country of all to open up!

 

Tom

I completely agree with this post.  I think that cruises that exclude US ports will start first and that US passengers will be excluded because they cannot travel to the ports.

There is already a Norway coast cruise for Norwegians and Danes.

Many years ago I took a celebrity cruise to CocoCay.  It was on a smaller boat (than many of the current RCL ships) and preceded the “Perfect Day” changes.  It was magical.  I relaxed on a hammock strung between two coconut palms — and no coconuts fell on my head!  It was quite easy to find an almost secluded area of the beach.  The sand was white, the water clear, and one could wade forever before the water was even knee deep.  And all the fish that looked like aquarium fish with lots of colors that swam between my legs.

I would love to repeat this experience.  But with the “Perfect Day” changes, I don’t know if that is still possible.

The E.U. has made great progress in crushing the virus; U.K. and Canada are also doing well.  I am not clear if they doing as well as the E.U. but they are certainly doing better than the U.S.  I am very pessimistic about when the U.S. will finally take virus suppression seriously.

I think cruises can start up within a few months with itineraries that exclude U.S. ports.  Those of us from the U.S. will be unable to participate or even get to the departure ports.  But our Canadian and U.K. friends can probably go.

it is important to think about recent infection rates, not total infection rates.  Statistics on the former are harder to get.  But search on cnn.com for “graph shows stark difference in US and E.U. responses to Covid-19” and you will get the point (I wish I knew how to cut and paste a link on my IPad).

So, to my Canadian friends (in half jest): would you take a Caribbean cruise that began in Halifax!  Think of all the sea days!

5 hours ago, 1965 said:

Princess has cancelled our Nov. 23 trans Atlantic from Southampton. Will they cancel our EZair booking or do I? Thanks 

I had a booking for Feb. 29 on Holland America from Shanghai to Hong Kong.  My air to Beijing on Feb. 22 and return from Hong Kong was booked through HAL.  Since HAL and Princess are siblings within the CCL hierarchy, I assume my experience is relevant to this thread.

By early Feb., the flights to Beijing and return from Hong Kong were deleted by the airlines and the cruise departure and return cities were changed to Yokohama.  And, if somehow, I actually made it to Beijing, I would not have been allowed to board the cruise ship anyway.

The cruise was cancelled by HAL around Feb. 15.  At that time, the HAL website still showed my original itinerary.  Actually HAL promised to rebook the air arrangements for passengers on the Feb. 29th sailing, so their failure to do so appeared to me to be an early indication that HAL didn’t intend to actually sail.

Anyway after the cruise was cancelled I called American Airlines to ask for a refund of my premium seat fees (I paid these directly to AA).  They asked me if I wanted to delete the booking.  I asked them to keep the booking so as to not complicate the refund I expected from HAL for cruise and air.

In the end I got a full refund from HAL and AA and also from Expedia (hotels and tours in China) and Allianz (trip insurance).  All these refunds came through within a few days (I guess now refunds take much longer).  I am only out $500 for visas to China.  But these visas last 10 years, so hopefully I can use them in the future.  Although the trip of a lifetime was cancelled, and can never be reconstructed, on the financial front at least, I am extremely lucky.

I bought both CCL and RCL around 2008 when they both suspended their dividends and their shares crashed.  At that time, new loans were impossible to get.  They both announced that by suspending their dividends, they would have enough cash from operations to make payments on their existing loans.  I suspect that the cost of the boats (as reflected in the resulting debt) is a major component of a cruise company’s costs.

At that time, I reasoned that I did not care about their dividend; I planned to recover my investment through the shareholder OBC.  So whatever they did to keep from going bankrupt was fine with me.

So how did this work out?

CCL has invariably honored the shareholder OBC.  I have certainly recovered my initial investment through that means.  And it has greatly improved our enjoyment of cruising. My wife is normally very frugal, but I give all the OBC’s to her and she really enjoys figuring out how to optimally spend it.  From this viewpoint, CCL’s recent debt/share offering is a good thing as long as the new debt does not sink the company.  I do not care about the eventual share dilution.

RCL has become very stingy about dispersing the shareholder OBC.  They even have gotten to the point of responding to requests with a somewhat hostile message — almost as if they want to say ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you.’  However, their stock soared to much higher levels than CCL.  I would have done spectacularly if I had sold it early this year.  But I still entertain the hope of cruising again . . .

In the future, I expect cruise companies will need to aggressively market their product due to oversupply and lingering consumer reluctance.  I would expect CCL to continue the shareholder benefit.   Maybe RCL will even bring it back.

in summary, IMHO CCL is a good play for future shareholder OBC for anyone that cruises a lot.  From this perspective, the attractiveness of RCL depends more on standard stock valuation approaches.