rjrpar

Any price the cruiseline offers can be matched by an agent, and most will give you some credit on top of it. I usually figure $100 per cabin for every $1000 in total cost($500pp cruise). To save 10% I'm willing to go with an agent even though I can easily book online myself.

We always get about 10% from our TA as OBC. Why pass it up?

I'm guessing 3 to 4 miles from Havensight to Crown Bay.

I would agree with about 4 miles, on the opposite side of town from Havensight. Also true about the walk not being very nice, we cabbed it for $4pp each way.

Seemed to us that RCI had an interest in Crown Bay; there were 2 ships in that day, the Celebrity Eclipse and the Allure. There were 4 or 5 at Havensight, none from RCI. Yes, town was very crowded.

Just curious, what didn't you like about Crown Bay?

Bad shopping, farther from town. Seems like the development of CB into a nice touristy shopping, eating, and drinking area is not happening - just the opinion of our small group of 4.

Does anyone know where the QOTS will dock in St. Thomas. We just returned from a Celebrity cruise which docked at Crown Bay; didn't care for it at all. We will be in St. T next Feb.7th.

Thanks in advance

Happy you had a better time than your review indicated. The tone of your review is very negative and leads me to think you are very hard to please.

Has anyone that went through this debilitating sickness received compensation afterwards?

Thanks

bobpell

Compensation for getting sick, it is sad that you even have to ask.

We did a 12 day Baltic last year and loved it. Remember, on a European cruise, it is all about sightseeing, not the ship.

That is pretty weak, I'd like to see them at least require a jacket. Shirt and tie no jacket you just look like a used car salesmen or an awkward high school student not formal at all.

So a sportscoat makes it formal? Everyone wants to redefine formal to what they want to wear.

My guess is they will allow any sports coat and a tie. they need to get enough people in Grande to spread out the masses. It will never be formal only

[/indent]my preference

Formal is not just wearing a jacket. Is it anyone's expectation that it will be tux or dark suit only.

The HAL Alaska tours for 2015 just came out this week, so I would imagine the 2016 schedule will not be out for about a year.

2015 HAL cruise/land tours still not out.

For a 7 day cruise we would take about $800-1000; Guest Relations will always make change. We usually spend $100-150 per port, beach chairs, cabs, lunch.

However, everyone is different. You need to price out what you have planned, account for onboard spending and add something as a cushion, maybe 25%.

I think, and I am speaking as a 4star non smoker, that this is an overblown issue. Okay so flame me. I may have in all my sailing days noticed someone smoking next to me. This even after the latest changes. I have more problems walking into the grocery store or even Target where the 'cigarette' towers are right at the front than on the cruise ship. I don't do the casino so I don't have that issue.

You are correct, it is an overblown issue. I don't smoke, never have, and on 15 cruises on 4 different cruise lines, I have never smelled smoke on my balcony. Since it's politically correct to bash smoking, everyone is on the bandwagon.

We have all private excursions planned for our Mediterranean cruise. We nearly always tip when on a HAL excursion, but aren't certain what is expected on a private excursions. Basically these are independent entrepreneurs so they set the price for the excursion as the owner. What, if any, tip is expected for these tours in Europe?

We tipped 10-15% last year in the Med. The tour guides are not the owners and rely on tips, however tipping is more moderate in Europe vs. US.

Nothing showing for the Yukon. Does HAL posts new cruises gradually or is this it?

Thanks

The whole concept of Dynamic Dining seems to fall apart on a longer cruise. We are on a 13 nighter on the Anthem next year. In the past we would have had say 6 different choices each night in the MDR - these choices would change giving a total of 78 choices on the cruise. We now have 8 choices for the 4 dining rooms for the whole cruise- a total of 32 choices, This does not seem very dynamic to me!

Only 32 choices, plus a buffet, a pizza shop, and several upscale specialty restaurants; hope you don't starve.

Although the new menu looks good, I am disappointed that there will no longer be set 'formal' nights and you will no longer have the same servers in the MDR.

The choice of early, late or mytime was fine so why change it?

From experience I have noticed that the dress code was slipping from cruise to cruise and it just seems that RC have given in to people who think shorts and a vest are acceptable attire for a formal night.

We are sailing on the 1st december voyage so it now looks like we will have to choose our meals 7 months in advance... we are diamond members so there are normally top tier events throughout the cruise which means many of these booking will need to be rescheduled. This also opens the question about shows - will there still be two per evening or will meals again have to be rescheduled?

the more you think about it prebooking will be a total waste of time as you wont know the itinerary until you are aboard.

We are seriously thinking of cancelling and transferring to another ship as this seems to be heading away from the reason we chose to cruise - we like the structure of set formal, casual, and smart casual dress and planning shows and entertainment around early or late dining.

What really annoys me is at the time of booking (early Diamond event) there was no mention of this major change to the whole cruise structure - we had to go through the whole early/late dining aggro and the table options. I really think standards are slipping and I think this will compound that - a server will not need to learn your name or build the bond you normally do with your servers.

Am i really the only person who thinks this is 'dumbing down' the RC brand.

What is the big deal about a waiter knowing your name? I will never understand the fascination with getting to bond with the staff, does anyone do this in land

based restaurants?

I don't think RCCL is better or worse than any of those other cruise lines. In my opinion all in the same category. All have had cut backs and forgive me if I am wrong you haven't cruised in two years? You would notice cutbacks in all I am sure. Anyway...have you given Disney a try? Its not just for kids you know. Even though I still consider it a main stream cruise line to me it is just more...but again...you will also pay more for it.

 

I would not give up on RCCL. Perhaps get a suite next time? Or try MSC yacht club. i hear that is fantastic. Luxury lines are going to be a huge cost increase but it you can afford it...go for it!

Agree with your post. We are Diamond on RCCL and just returned from a 14nighter on Celebrity. Despite their claim to be a notch up from RCCL, we thought the experience was very similar. Actually, our cruise on Carnival last year was just as good as the Celebrity cruise. There are pros and cons on every line but overall, they are all alike - a good value, lots of fun, but not an upscale vacation.

IMHO with 18 restaurants on board and all needing a reservation they will have to have more than one.

All 18 restaurants do not need reservations.

The humps are more convenient and have much better views of ports on arrival and departure. We have had one aft cabin and never again, guess we are a minority.

My guess is that they will have something similar as NCL.....freestyle concept, do away with traditional dining. I don't care about schedule times however I do care if dress continues to go downhill.:rolleyes:

Who cares what other people wear, does it really affect you?

No that is an industry wide statistic that is present so that passengers can use that information, provided by the cruiseline, to make an informed decision. It is not a hiring number, why would a hiring number be present on a travel agent site or the cruiseline's info page for each of their ships. The staff level may not be precisely that number, but it would not be much less, anything more than about 5% and you could argue that they are advertising a product that they are not delivering......

 

Also, when staff are off, meaning that they have left the ship, they are replaced. When they are off for the night, they are still on the ship and count toward the number. Many of the staff are in positions where you will never see them.

 

Princess staff rests as well.

 

NLH Arizona has basically provided evidence that there are actually more staff on this Celebrity ship than on the Princess ship, although clearly there is no way to know how many of the staff are assigned in passenger areas of the ship where they are more visible. Clearly the OP felt there was a better crew to passenger ratio on Princess.....

I don't think you are right, the numbers you are addressing have many variables, no guarantee that is the number onboard.

Heard from a current cruiser that they are using vouchers instead of a lounge for Elite cocktail hour. No mention of Noro, so that is good news. We also leave this Sat.

Do you think the lowest prices are when they are first posted?

 

I've never been able to figure out the best time to book a cruise.:confused:

Not sure, it think it varies. We usually cruise RCCL or Celebrity and their popular cruises (2 week Caribbean, NJ departures) usually increase from 20-30% from first posting. Fortunately, price drops are honored until final payment.

My experience from 2 European cruises is the price falls as you get closer to departure.

Also looking for Alaska 2015. We are looking at 15 days to the Yukon. There are some pretty good deals for 2014, hope the 2015 prices are as good.