FloridaTourist

Yes, there is a separate line for Suite customers. You also can get away with boarding a little early.

Do signature suites get that perk?

I will be there in April on the Oosterdam and I am hoping to do the boat Oia. I will let everyone know. There is only one other ship on port the day we arrive.

Ugh!!!! Leaving on the Oosterdam April 18th. So far so good for our stop in Ephesus. Just holding my breath every time I check my email.

Definitely people prefer water that they are used to! When I travel to Florida especially around Orlando, I just can not take their water. It is hard (lots of minerals) and smells strongly. In honor of this thread, let's all send $10 (just 5 bottles of water!) to Flint Michigan for the citizens there who are suffering from contaminated water or to other charities trying to provide water over the whole world. This is a serious subject past what tastes good or how it is managed. Really life or death -- don't waste it.

hahahhaha. Since I asked the original question about the water I have to address this since I live in Orlando. We live actually in Winter Park about 5 miles north of downtown. I actually love our water. Like you said it must be what you are used to. Our water is so good we even had he softener that was there when we bought our house removed.

Anyway thanks everyone for the water info. So now I know I can have bourbon on the rocks with ship ice and not worry. And maybe refill my water bottle a few times.

How would you know it was the water that made you sick and not something else? I drank tap water in Israel, Europe and cruise ships and never got a stomach bug.

Well you really never know for sure but the symptoms seem to match what one would expect.

My DW and I will be doing the Adriatic Sea cruise on the Oosterdam starting April 18. We are big water drinkers. I can go through 4-5 water bottles a day at a minimum myself. While I would never drink the water in the ports, is it safe to drink the water on the ship? I do have SBP so I know I can get water bottles there for when we are at port. Several years a go, my DW and I were in Israel for 2 weeks. Thought I could drink the water there but I got sick from it. Trying to be smarter this time.

Haifa is a beautiful city. Did all Israel on a land tour not a cruise. Haifa has a large Arab presence. But we did stay overnight in Haifa. We did a tour that took us to a Druze village just outside the city and we had dinner with a traditional meal with a family. They explained to us about the Druze sect and how they serve in the Israeli military. Extremely interesting and one of our trip highlights. I know there are tours that do this just don't know the names. You will have to do some research or write the Haifa chamber of commerce or council

Love your posts! I wish my cruise was today. What did you have for dinner the night you got the chocolate?

My wife and I both have had it for about 8 months now. We both travel a lot for our jobs. I thin as long as your number is entered into your reservation you will get pre-tsa. That being said 2 weeks ago when going through Regan National the pre-tsa line was closed because it was a slow travel time, mostly because our flight was 4 hrs delayed. They let us keep our shoes on but made us take laptops out.

We were in Europe when the tragedy in Paris happened. We were more than cognizant of the need for security because our city was at code 4 and the presence of police. We don't have med plans (yet;)). Simply because another itinerary caught our eye. You can't live your life in fear - otherwise the terrorists win

A life lived in fear is a life not worth living.

My wife and I will sail on the Oosterdam April 18 for our first trip to Europe. You have to travel smart. We won't take the subways or buses. We also will do all private tours to avoid the large group tours. We have been to Israel during some unrest and even crossed the West Bank several years ago. You just have to be aware of your surroundings. It's never a guarantee but you can't let them win. You can get hit by a car crossing the street at home. You have to live your life! The counties on the med are going to do all they can to protect tourism as their economies depend on it. Any threats and their countries will fall apart.

Friday, January 29, embarkation day

 

 

 

A quick post to check in. Well, we are aboard Oosterdam. We drove to the port, arriving after 11 a.m. We did a quick check in and were able to board right away. Our cabin was ready, and our bags came by about 1:30. We have unpacked and I was able to create an internet account. I will post more after boat drill (or this evening).

 

 

 

More later,

 

Dave

Hope your having fun Dave. What kind of Internet account to buy on board??? What were the options? I'm hoping for one of their newer plans after the dry dock in April.

When in Rome do they have Uber/ Lyft and how are the prices vs a taxi? After a recent trip to DC we have come to enjoy uber and the service they offer vs a taxi at double the price.

Congrats on your retirement. Can't wait to read your review as I will sail on the Oosterdam April 18 right after dry dock. I also plan on doing a live blog at that time from the Adriatic Sea so I am taking mental notes to cover things people want to see and hear

I'm not sure about Buber - did you mean Viber? Either way, yes, that should work, though there's a chance the ship might try to restrict VOIP either because it uses too much bandwidth or because it cuts into cellular at sea revenues, and if their messaging uses the same ports, they might get cut off as well.

 

But in practice, I found that my T-Mobile WiFi calling worked for text messaging, and as long as my phone was connected to WiFi I got text messages just fine. So I would think that Skype, Viber, WhatsApp etc. should work OK for messaging.

 

This advice only applies to text messaging and perhaps picture messaging. Actual phone calling over VOIP is probably not going to work super well at sea even if it's not blocked, just because it's satellite internet and the lag and packet drops are going to be a problem.

Sorry. Meant viber. So I sail the Oosterdam on April 18 right after dry dock. Think we will the new updated internet plan?

I am curious if anyone has signed up for this and if yes what their experience has been like. Is it worth the time and money?

I have signed up for this. It is essentially pre-tsa with an international piece for an extra $15. I travel a lot for business and live in Orlando. The Orlando airport is hardly ever less than a 20 min security wait. With global entry I get through in 2 minutes keep my shoes on and laptop in the case. I have used it at other airports and it is a major time saver. Haven't traveled international with it yet, first trip in April, and it should help in customs.

The specific international roaming package you want is called "Passport". It costs $30 for 30 days, and when you have it active you get discounted rates for calls, texts and data in a wide variety of countries. It only applies while you're in port; not while you're on the ship.

 

 

 

The basic plan reduces call costs to $1.00/min, which is still highway robbery, but lower than the rates with no plan ($1.50 for Europe, $2.50 for the rest of the world). You do get unlimited texting, and it includes 120MB of cellular data, plus a relatively reasonable overage rate of $0.25/MB.

 

 

 

Here's the page that covers all roaming issues:

 

 

 

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/international/roaming.html

 

 

 

There is no way to get discounted rates with AT&T onboard the ship. Phone service (either calling or answering) is $2.50/minute. Sending a single text message is $0.50, unless it has a picture or video with it, in which case it's $1.30 plus potentially the data cost of uploading the picture or video. Data is charged at roughly $10/MB, which is insane. Do not, under any circumstances, use cellular data while you're on a cruise ship. One automatic update of an app could cost you $500 easily. And in my experience, if your data is shut off you can't send multimedia (pictures and videos) via text. The text portion of the message will come through, but not the pictures or videos.

 

 

 

My recommendation is to turn off cellular data in your phone settings and then only turn it on while you're in port and need to look something up, then turn it off again before you board the ship. If you tell us the phone model someone here can probably tell you how to adjust the settings.

 

 

 

If you only plan to send texts, then you may be OK without the Passport plan. Receiving texts while roaming costs the same as it would at home, even without a roaming plan. Sending them costs $0.50 (or $1.30 with a picture). So you would need to send 60 texts to equal the $30 the Passport plan would cost you. If you don't think you'll send that many, you can probably get by without it. If you want to send picture texts, though, you really need Passport, because you'll need to turn on cellular data to get those to work.

 

 

 

As others have mentioned, T-Mobile has much, much lower international roaming rates, and you don't have to buy any special package to get them. I assume at some point AT&T will have to match or come closer to T-Mobile in order to be competitive, but for now it's astonishing how big the difference is. We ultimately switched to T-Mobile just because of the hassles of having to buy the Passport plan every time we left the country.

This is great info. I am cruising on the Oosterdam April 18 from Rome. To get service on the ship couldn't I buy an Internet plan from the ship and use Buber to contact family and send pictures etc?

We had a 100 minute plan for $55 three weeks ago. Do not remember the other options though. Speed was not too bad, a bit slow, but better than past cruises.

Depending when you are cruising the O'dam is slated for dry dock in Early April coming out on April18. I would expect at that time the Internet to be upgraded to the newer plans with better speed and pricing

We are going in April and staying for a 12 day port intensive cruise so we didn't want to be in the center of town. We booked the new JWMarriott. It's on it's own private island and has free transportation to st marks about 20 minutes away. Reviews on it have been excellent

I have been to Alaska several times. Only once on a cruise and than many times after my son moved there. Earlier in the summer is better but Alaska is very unpredictable. Also depends on what you want to do there. One of our priorities was to take a helicopter to the top of a glacier and go dog sledding. If you don't do that in June the chances are it will be to warm later in the summer. Doing a sled on wheels was not an option. We wanted the real thing, a once in a life time experience. So select based on what you want to do and just plan the weather will be moist.

Thanks for a great review. I will be in several of those ports in April on theOosterdam

That's odd. When we applied for ours the officer told us we would never need the ID card but keep it in a safe place. Haven't had a chance to use my global entry yet. Thanks for the heads up

A bed is a bed. If you can't enjoy the space of the suite way pay for it?

Luckily the TA is my dear MIL. So she has my best interest. I have already told her how much more I would pay. Since the cruise is port intensive, 11 ports in 12 days I opted not to pay for the suite up front because we won't be in the room except to shower after all day in port to go to dinner.

So let me ask this......I had my TA book a specific cabin for a verandah room. Think it was 6043. Does that mean I have little or no chance to receive an upgrade on my 12 day Oosterdam, cruise in April? I was hoping to call 30 days prior to sailing to see if they would up sell me for a lower price to a signature suite

Did I miss something? Where are you posting the menus? Did I miss the website address?