CruisingFox27

Yes please 🙂 The Asia repositioning cruises had some great itineraries pre-pandemic. I would love these back.

We had 3 ports cancelled on our last cruise, our excursion refunds were received within 3 /4 weeks, back to our credit card. Some of our fellow passengers received theirs in 6/7 weeks. It is very much dependent on the billing cycle.

Lirica Orchestra x 2 Preziosa x 2 Divina x 3 Splendida x 3 Meraviglia Seaside Armonia was cancelled, thanks Donald 😡 Grandiosa and Euribia booked.

If we leave the FCC assigned to our Dubai cruise, which appears the easier option, and it's cancelled, the FCC starts again. So, we would have 12 months, as on the original certificate T&C's to make a new booking and apply the FCC? I would be perfectly happy with that, but this is principally the point of concern. We had until Nov 24 to use it, if the April 25 cruise is cancelled in say, Jan 25, we're past the deadline. I just don't want to lose a significant value, FCC.

In November '23 we received a FCC, we made a booking in Dec '23 for a sailing in April '25 and requested the FCC be applied. (I haven't actually had confirmation from our TA that it has been, their website still has our outstanding balance without it applied). However, I fear that the sailing will be cancelled - it's Dubai to Le Harve with Middle East ports, so requires the Middle East situation to be resolved and ships to recommence traversing the Suez Canal. The World needs this, as well as our holiday, but I'm not that confident. If we leave the FCC applied, and it is cancelled, what timescales do we have for reusing/rebooking? Alternatively, we've also now booked a cruise for June '24, is it possible to request that the FCC is applied to that instead? It would certainly save future uncertainty. I'll be contacting our TA to discuss but thought I'd seek info here first if anyone has experience of similar?

We were offered lobster several times on our Italy to SA repositioning.

Only once have I encountered busy and noisy hot tub guests. The pool area has always had space and tranquility. If you're not concerned by many of the other YC benefits and are keen on a balcony, would an Aurea balcony not suffice? You'd have your own sundeck for a relaxed tranquil day.

Lost in translation or someone has pressed the wrong button on the computer... neither of these would come as a complete surprise...🙄

Highly likely that the passenger demographic will be non US, which will mean a roll call that is less active. Are you looking at the early April repositioning cruise? If so, I can confirm 2 non US passengers, as we're booked on that one. We're not going to look at flights until much closer to sailing. And desperately hoping for a resolution to the current unrest.

Interesting to see if this is rolled out. If they introduce MyChoice dining to Fantastica, that pretty much nullifies any benefit of Aurea. It was the only benefit that couldn't be purchased separately.

And, if as an individual/couple you've paid the Fantastica privilege of selecting your preferred dining time this shouldn't be impacted by group bookings. Both have paid for the same privilege, groups shouldn't have any priority. YC is irrelevant to Fantastica dining time bookings.

It doesn’t necessarily mean 80% full. The ship capacity is based on cabins being fully occupied, but cabins which can accommodate 3 or 4 may only be booked for 2, especially if its not school holidays. So, on the deck plan where a cabin is booked out, you can't see if that's 2 or 4 passengers. And will it be too crowded, as above that's subjective to how much you tolerate crowds. There will always be popular areas which are busy and less popular areas. If the weather is warm, right next to the pool will be busy but, a deck up and a bit further away away will not. And the hour between 1st and 2nd dinner/ theatre lots of the bars are always busy.

The delivery and the breakfast doesn't incur a charge (*some items in some regions are payable).

If nothing has changed, which is currently unclear. With Fantastica you're given an option to request an early or late dining time. It's not guaranteed. The assigned time and MDR is applicable each night. Alternatively, you have the buffet (free) or speciality restaurants (payable) where you can choose your dining time each evening.

It's purely guess work and speculation from me there on itinerary, but Island Princess isn't going Aqaba or through the Suez Canal. To me, it wouldn't make sense to head as far north as Dubai or Oman if they have to circumvent the west coast of Africa, in terms of the time required to do so. And, they could substitute some east med ports for the west med ones. Fortunately, I'm not doing the planning. I suspect the route planners for all the cruise lines are very stressed right now. It's a lottery for 2025, we are booked on a Dubai to Paris repositioning in April, we were looking to incorporate Aqaba and the Egypt ports we missed in Nov '23 but how long this mess is going to go on for 🤷‍♀️

We are booked on our first Princess sailing this year, do the majority dress nicely on normal evening and then more smartly on formal night? Is someone in jeans or shorts the exception rather than the norm? I would usually wear a cocktail dress and DH trousers and a casual shirt or polo on normal evening, and then an evening dress and suit on formal night. That will still be what we do as we wouldn't dream of wearing jeans or shorts to a nice restaurant at home so certainly won't on a cruise, but will we be very alone?

The itinerary is considerably changed, they aren't just skipping ports, originally they were going to Egypt, Saudi and Jordan, then as above, they were going to Cyprus and Malta, replaced with Malaga and Alicante. Presumably they'll now do SA, Mauritius and Madagascar etc before crossing over to South America as scheduled. Costa have just cancelled their March 9th repositioning sailing from Dubai to Italy, MSC had already cancelled the Virtuosa sailing from Dubai to the Med/UK for April. Whatever the Island Princess does, it isn't going to be sailing through the Suez Canal to return to Europe. After Singapore and Malaysia they could sail over to Mauritius, South Africa and return via the West Coast of Africa. That's just a guess on my part, but something along those lines would make sense.

Yes, stopped at Namibia and now enroute to Durban. The situation is worsening in the Red Sea area, spring journeys through the Suez do not look very likely. We're booked for April '25 and I'm starting to doubt that happening.

And the Red Sea situation is due to an Act of War, which isn't often covered as standard in insurance policies. We were sailing through Suez in November and had changes to the itinerary, we were offered the option to cancel and lots of fellow passengers were saying that their insurance wouldn't cover the associated costs for to this clause.

From a discussion on Aurea benefits recently, it's listed elsewhere.

Only Aurea and YC cabins have robes included. If you have diamond voyager club status you'll receive a robe regardless of your experience/ cabin level.

Not in my experience either, although we were never early to leave.

There are usually lots of excursions that can be booked individually, with a few offers if you book a combined excursions package. If you look on the website destinations page, you'll see more excursions applicable to the ports. Sometimes, when you log into your booking the excursions show in the itinerary section but sometimes you need to look in the excursions section. If they're not yet there it is just a case of waiting for the booking to update.

I don't belive so, but we wouldn't regularly order anything that wasn't available from the bar. Our orders would be a soft drink, bottle of beer or a mojito 🍹 On Divina if you want the full, waited on bar service you'd need to be in YC.

If you're looking for fellow sailors for your cruise, the roll call section would be the best place to check. Although, Med cruises generally attract less CC members.