Orsino

at 9am Canada place was buzzing with people leaving the ships. At some point too early might hinder you. 

We arrived around 11am. Lots of people so coming earlier could be beneficial. 
 

at 9:30am we were at the end of Hornsby close to Canada place and we could see people dragging luggage towards Canada place. So I guess going at 9:30 am isn’t unusual. We opted to take our time in the morning and while there were lots of lines, things moved steadily so I felt progress was always being made. I would have liked more signage at the roadside end of Canada place. We were on board by 11:40, so not too bad. 

I’m in Vancouver today for embarkation, and it is pretty intense. I’ve been through Vancouver before for cruises but I guess I keep forgetting the twisty process. 
 

first, I had no idea where to drop bags. I think we messed up and took them to check in. Luckily there is a spot there for checking bags which I think is sort of a “last chance” deal. I recommend figuring out the correct drop off spot. I recall dropping bags closer to the garage in the past. 
 

After that, the process is a winding path that could be confusing if I thought about it too much, but going with the flow eventually gets got us where we needed to go. I just turned my mind off and followed the herd, which I think saved my sanity a bit. I’m pretty sure there is a lot of backtracking involved. 

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

My take on the law is California residents apparently aren’t the brightest group. 🙂

As I understand it, the main target of the law are fees like resort fees which distort the market. Honest hoteliers who don't charge a junk resort fee end up getting hurt by those that do because a hotel that tacks on a resort fee "looks" cheaper at first and draws away business from a hotel that is *actually* cheaper. This also hurts the consumer, so California is stepping in, which I think is the right move and I hope becomes standard in the whole country. I hate resort fees, they are dumb and totally unnecessary except to bamboozle customers.

That RCL is also caught in the net is more of a by-product than the main intent. But knowing the total price earlier in the booking process can't be a bad thing, right?

On 4/22/2024 at 11:37 AM, worldtraveller99 said:

 

Re the tour to Santiago de Compostela, I would like to do that. I believe all tours must get back on board at least an hour before departure, so that would still give us time to set up our tripods?

I’m sure the schedule *looks* fine and would aim to return in time. However, eclipse traffic is epic. A tour retuning at 4pm would probably be okay, especially since it isn’t going too far away. But a tour scheduled to return at 7pm would likely be delayed by traffic. 

Well, I booked it. I have nearly two years to change my mind. If another cruise line has a better itinerary, I will be very tempted to switch.

The itinerary I was sent has: "8/12/2026    La Coruna (Tours To Santiago De Compostela), Spain    09:00 AM    09:00 PM"

A tour to Santiago De Compostela on that day seems like a very bad idea, and not only because it leaves the area of the total eclipse (barely), but the traffic!!

7 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

First, and less encouraging, it seems that the ships will be docked at Totality?

Thank you for pointing this out. We are on the verge of booking this cruise, but you are right. This is a strange choice on Cunard’s part. All the other ports have departure at 5pm but on eclipse day they are scheduled to depart at 9pm just after totality. Why!? One wouldn’t even be able to see it on land if they wanted to. Everyone will have to be onboard before the eclipse anyway. 

for me, the whole point would be to be at sea during the total eclipse. 
in addition to chasing clear skies the ship could move closer to the center line for a few more seconds of totality. More importantly I would like to see what the ocean looks like with a total eclipse. 
 

now I’m rethinking this. It is still a good way to be in the right spot but another cruise might be better. I will probably book then cancel if I find something better. Other cruise lines don’t have August 2026 schedules out yet. 

Wow, what a coincidence that I happened to look at it today. Including the year would be clearer, especially since there is also 11 April 2025 to confuse things too. Thank you.

I am also interested in this cruise.

The comments about the late hour had me concerned too so I looked up some numbers for 12 August 2026.

Sunset in A Coruna on 12 August 2026 is 9:41pm local time.

Total Eclipse begins in A Coruna on 12 August 2026 at 8:27pm positioned 12° in the sky.

Space on deck does seem like a valid concern. Over an hour before sunset, the sun may be high enough in the sky that people won't be blocking each other. Also many balconies would have good views as they don't need to look 'up' just outward.

I have not sailed on Cunard before. The website is quoting some amount for "Today's Deposit" but then has the balance listed as due 11 April, which is today. Is Cunard collecting 100% of the fare over 2 years before the sailing?

Different people like different things. It is kind of stupid to write about things one doesn’t like. I would say it is even worse to belittle others for liking something he does not. 

2 minutes ago, BND said:

Nope.  Legend leaves for a TA on 15 April.  Read the email I posted.  It says why they are ending it a day early.

Does it? It says they need to, but not why. Am I missing something?

40 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Really surprised they are not offering a one day refund of the cruise fare fir the Aptil 12 sailing. 

I'm surprised too. It seems inconsistent to me. I was on Anthem last year when it had propulsion problems, and RCL cancelled a port. We still got the DAY, just not the port. We got 1/7th of our cruise fare back as refundable OBC. You would think that cutting a whole day off would get more OBC not less.

Or maybe RCL figured out that they were being too generous with Anthem. I can't say that I blame them. That was super generous, and I was a happy clam.

Thanks. I saved a little bit on my excursion. 
 

Then I spent more. 😉

The conventional wisdom is to not compare The Key directly to the per device cost of internet. While one internet is the price you quote, two internet is not double that cost.

Value varies person to person. 
 

Waiting to board is generally only an issue for early times. If you are patient and arrive a little bit later, one generally does not have to wait. 
 

disembarkation is a different story. That can be a long wait. Though, again if one doesn’t have to hurry off, waits can be minimized by leaving later. But then you might end up waiting in a different way anyway. 

We did an “escape room” on anthem with no charge about 7 years ago. One family brought their kid who was not 12 yet, putting the crew member in charge in an awkward spot. But no one objected so we proceeded without incident. It was fairly basic, but fun. The crew member gave hints too quickly IMO. 
 

we did the escape room on anthem again last year. It was a different puzzle but still basic ( though less basic than the previous iteration). We also didn’t pay last year but i think we were comped.

again, basic but fun. 
 

Like all escape rooms, you only experience like 10%-20% of the puzzles. Everyone breaks up and does their own thing then all come together at the end. 

i probably would not pay for an onship escape room unless it was really good, which does not seem to be the case. I think I’m better off doing escape rooms on land. 

18 hours ago, robmtx said:

I'm just curious what people eat on a daily basis on land? The food on ships is so bad now that you cancel cruises over it? Or, maybe I should ask, what did you used to get on board, food wise? We've been on several cruises post pandemic, and yeah we've seen lots of changes, and yea the food may be different, but it's not anything that we'd personally give up on.  We've had some very good meals onboard, and some great customer service as well since they resumed sailing.

 

When we do land-based vacations, we have to randomly pick a restaurant and hope the 5 stars online are true.. and then three meals a day on land vacation is $200-$250.

 

We started cruising 20 years ago. But not only was the food better on cruises back then, but my personal food journey was in a very different place too. 20 years ago restaurant dining for me was pizzeria uno’s or a Applebees type place. If we were celebrating something we might go to legal seafood. At home we would have something like spaghetti with jarred sauce. 
Today we cook more intricate meals and eat at fancier restaurants. So not only have cruise food gone downhill but our everyday expectations have gone up. 
 

I remember being blown away by the MDR food on our first cruise. Specialty dining was not something we needed at all. Also back then speciality dining was a modest upcharge. Now specialty dining is the same cost as eating at a land restaurant. I remember thinking that the rise of specialty dining was going to kill MDR food. On some lines (Holland America) the MDR food was so good there was no reason to go to specialty dining. Solution? Make MDR worse. 
 

Now we cruise for the cruise. We endure the food and save our money for fine dining on land. 

On 7/19/2023 at 7:44 PM, RD64 said:

The only non-cash “additional” gift I would give is to the Filipino crew in port cities (ie Vancouver) where there happens to be a Jollibee restaurant location. Jollibee is a restaurant that every Filipino holds near and dear to their heart.
 

They could not care less for your chocolates or random tokens from your home state that they don’t want. Give them a gift card to use at Jollibee for take out and you will see true gratitude as opposed to the forced “thank you for something I truly do not want and have no use for but I have to fake gratitude for”.

I’m mostly on a ‘do what you want’ point of view on non-cash tips. There is, after all, the possibility that a non-cash gift has extra value due to rarity or difficulty on obtaining on a cruise ship. 
However, the notion that a *gift card* is better than cash is easily dismissed. Cash is clearly better than a gift card. The gift card can only be spent at the location it is tied to. Give cash and they can spend it at Jollibee if they want to and more importantly, elsewhere if they don’t. 
 

Well, I’m just booking my first Viking cruise so this is all very helpful for me. 

34 minutes ago, MrMarc said:

So if you are injured, you should only be able to file a suit if you have as much money as the other party has to spend on attorneys?  If you are hit while stopped at a stoplight, juries return verdicts against the person that was just stopped all the time.  This basically closes the courts to everyone except the extremely wealthy.

Uh yeah. Exactly. You know I’m here agreeing with you, right?

15 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I said nothing about the entire legal system. However, as it stands right now plantiffs' cost is nothing unless winning and the lawyers take their cut. The defendant has no choice but to pay the cost of their defense. 

'losing parties having to pay winning party's legal fees' would be a change to the entire legal system.
Furthermore, I believe one can ask for legal fees in certain circumstances currently.

Well that’s something that would impact the entire legal system. In a world of unintended consequences, I don’t think it is wise to point to one case as proof that the entire legal system should change. 

His point is that the design is a question of fact and therefore needs to be decided by a jury. He isn’t making an opinion on what that decision should be, only that the decision should be made by a jury, not the judge. 

9 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

You might look into one of the cabanas as a family base instead of the Beach Club ... some of them go for about $300 (plus 18%).  

I don’t think this is a reasonable price expectation. 

The core of the problem was routing from Rome to Crete via Finland to avoid a hotel night. I look at that and I agree that air2sea is useless in that respect. We often see people on this board talking about booking air2sea for the assurance that RCL will take care of things if things go wrong.  Routing so that one spends a day in the airport to save RCL costs is not what I would want for me either. This post is a very good “buyer beware.”

I would contact RCL and see if they would refund part of the cost of the airfare, specifically the amount that the Finland flight would have cost. I doubt you would get anywhere, but that would seem “fair” to me. 

What is best depends on what your goals are. My non-expert opinion is that bamboo is for more pressure on the muscles. Hot stone is more relaxation (less pressure, more heat). Salt scrub is to target the skin (exfoliation).