GCS2000

22 minutes ago, wallyj said:

Hi @GCS2000, wondering if you bought non refundable air with a U.S. carrier, as many have implemented ‘credit’ options if you cannot fly on your original ticket, so your non refundable ticket may be able to be converted to a credit for you to use ?

 

I thought usually the Charters need to lock in date about year before sailing, but the charters also have to see how well the potential sailing is selling before they commit and sign the ‘contract’.  

no insurance and the flights are with Delta.  I can get e-credit of course and have looked into.

Issue here is same class of service is about 3X more than what we already had price wise.  If we drop down in service (fine) then we are left with a bunch of credit tied to my wife and daughter and have no other plans (and can't make any) for them to use it up before it expires (end of 2023 but is good on travel for 2024).

With respect to our daughter its a position through school with her professor essentially its already lined up (funding was renewed already and good for several years) and the only thing pending the hiring is her graduating.  She is tracking her professor down today to see if things can be pushed a week to the 9/6 sailing.  Wife cannot do any other dates based on work (even the 6th is pushing it).

We will figure it out I guess.  Just a frustrating thing is all.

6 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Sucks when bad things happen to good people.  Are they offering any ship change. best of luck.. 

nope just replacement cruise dates is all and $100 OBC.  Supposedly they will give the same rate as what we paid which was like $2800 for the 9 night cruise for 2 people.  Problem is none of those dates work with their schedule.

Ahh nothing like getting the dreaded cancelled cruise email ya know.

Odyssey cruise to Greece and Italy on 8/28 is cancelled.  This is a serious problem for my wife and daughter as it was the time that she go before starting a new job after graduation.  Everything was all booked and paid for already too including hotels, shuttles, excursions, flights (of course nonrefundable, yippee), and side trip before the cruise in Paris.

And of course there isn't one single cruise on any line anywhere near what we had paid for this one thanks to all the massive price hikes.

Thanks for putting us in a bind Royal!

No.  My wife and daughter are on Odyssey next Aug and not one thing is on sale (nor has it been since the we booked the cruise 2 months ago).  I have a feeling that things may stay this way on this cruise as its mostly sold out.

Wish I could get that lucky.  Nothing for my cruise has been on sale at all.

Just now, latebuyer said:

Web works now! For me it says 35% off excursions only today.

Wish that was the case for me.  All prices are still the same for my wife's greek cruise

2 hours ago, Eileen G said:

We have been to Santorini 5 times and we always just walk down. the path is very wide so it is not hard to avoid the donkeys or donkey poo. You just need to be sure to wear sturdy shoes with a good grip not sandals. It takes about 20 minutes with beautiful views. I actually look forward to that leisurely stroll at the end of the day.

Thank you for this info!

Site is definitely hit or miss.  One minute our cruise is there and I can "plan" things the next minute its gone.  The brief time I can look at things there are no sales for bevs, internet, or excursions yet.

Hopefully things do go on sale but if not we have plenty of time since our cruise is not later next year.

But as usual IT dept is lacking.

42 minutes ago, John Bull said:

Second excursion ".... before the journey back to Athinios port"

 

Tenders for those on ship-sponsored excursions are tendered to the little inter-island ferry harbour of Athinios because the road goes down to the harbour and ships' excursion buses pick up there.

Tenders for those not on ship's excursions are tendered to the pier below Fira (called Santorini old harbour) - there's no road, to get up to Fira folk have to take the cablecar or go up the zig-zag path by donkey (mule)

 

This map shows Santorini Old Harbour (below Fira, zig-zag path, cablecar, no road) and Athinios harbour (road down to the port). Ships moor in the caldera between the two

https://goo.gl/maps/CWsu8herppnq3Bid7

 

 For the return to the ship, most ships' excursions - including the first one posted - then drop their passengers in Fira for "free time" and they make their own way by cable-car or the zig-zag path down to the pier below Fira for tenders back to the ship from there.

 

The second excursion specifically says "........ snap some memorable photos (of Fira) before the journey back to Athinios port", so clearly the bus then takes them down to the harbour of Athinios, where they board tenders back to the ship. Very simple, no cablecar, no donkeys.

It does say 

• Guests must be able to walk approximately 1.5 miles over cobblestone surfaces, with inclines and about 20 steps and extended periods of standing.
• Guests in wheelchairs and others with limited mobility should not select this tour

I don't think that refers to the buses or tenders, I think its the 1 1/2 miles of cobbled roads or somewhere on the excursion.

 

I agree with Cruisemom that your best bet is to book that excursion and check it out soonest once aboard.

Ships' crews know the score, head offices don't.

 

JB 🙂

 

Thanks for this I didn't catch that wording.  Seems like this one might work.  The walking is no problem for either of them (we just walked over 57 miles on our AK cruise in Sept).  I will talk it over with the wife and most likely book it.

Appreciate the help everyone.

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

Your only real option is to look for a ship tour that returns passengers to the original port. These are rare, but I have seen some cruiselines offer one or maybe two at most.

 

A private operator could possibly RETURN you to Athinios port, but you would not be allowed OFF the ship to Athinios in the morning without a shorex ticket from the cruise line. 

 

From reading the two that you've posted, it does appear that the second one would return you to Athinios port. From long experience, I do not think it's worth trying to call the cruise line and get a clarification in advance of your cruise -- they literally know nothing and you are likely to get conflicting, confusing, or downright wrong info.

 

If this is paramount to your group, I would go ahead and book the second tour and then confirm it with the shore excursion desk as soon as you get onboard.

 

Yes I already got "no info" from RCCL when I called.  All they did was basically read the online description to me.

Downside of just booking and excursion is that if it doesn't get her back down w/o cable car we will be paying for an excursion that doesn't get used.

Same I think after the charge went "official" and not pending I had the points like 24 hours later.  I already spent them on hotels before and after the cruise too.

As I posted before need to find an excursion for the wife and daughter that does NOT involve the cable car (nor will they take the donkeys).  Reading these 2 on RC's portal I am wondering if one of these might work.

It seems clear that there will not be an issue to start the excursion i.e. tender to dock and get on a bus/van etc then tour around as it states but then once its time to go back she is concerned she will have to take the cable car back down (some googling has led us to believe this may be the case).  We are hoping someone can chime in about these particular excursions and confirm whether or not that is the case.

I am open to a private tour not through Royal as well if anyone has a suggestion there that does not involve the cable car at all.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

Best of Santorini

On 11/16/2022 at 6:17 AM, matj2000 said:

What is the problem with the cable cars?

Wife is afraid of heights and even slightly claustrophobic.  There is no way she can do the car.

As I posted before need to find an excursion for the wife and daughter that does NOT involve the cable car (nor will they take the donkeys).  Reading these 2 on RC's portal I am wondering if one of these might work.

It seems clear that there will not be an issue to start the excursion i.e. tender to dock and get on a bus/van etc then tour around as it states but then once its time to go back she is concerned she will have to take the cable car back down (some googling has led us to believe this may be the case).  We are hoping someone can chime in about these particular excursions and confirm whether or not that is the case.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

Best of Santorini

My wife and daughter are heading to Italy and Greece next year on Odyssey.  They are looking at excursions and running into a slight issue with regards to Santorini.

Can anyone who knows or has done a Royal excursion for Santorini give us some info please?

The issue is that my wife cannot do heights so any excursion that will require her to do the cable car is out of the question.  They will not be doing the donkeys either (personal choice).  

My understanding is the certain excursions booked via the cruise line will take you to the ferry port and then travel via bus and thus avoid the cable car (up and back of course).  The problem is I cannot seem to figure out which ones are that way.  Are there any excursions that might work for them?

I contacted Royal and all they do is read me the description of the excursion (same as on the site) so they are not any help unfortunately.

I was happy to see this sale.  Actually saved me $600 on our Iceland cruise in 2024 and $800 on our Hawaii cruise in 2025.  Unfortunately it didn't help my sister for her cruise next month though.

6 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

@CCruiser08 The fees are baked into the daily fee for the plan.  Once you pay for the plan, no additional tips or fees will be charged on your cabin portfolio.  The exception is if you order something with an extra fee at a specialty restaurant like Crab Cakes. 

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Thanks for this answer as I am looking at this same package for the same Iceland cruise but in 2024.  Its a hefty amount but I have a feeling we are going to go with it.

Does NCL ever have sales like RCI on things like this and shore excursions (guessing no) if so maybe waiting for a black friday deal or something would be wise.  This our first on NCL so we have no idea how they do their packages and prices - seem pretty steep so far.

11 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Bologna wouldn't be as far as Venice, but you can assume earliest walk off before 7AM. Noon for Bologna and 1PM for Venice would probably be the earliest.

Thanks.

Can anyone comment on how much time I should allow for our flight home when the cruise is over?

Royal says ship to dock at 6am at Ravenna.  I assume earliest disembarkation with the Key would be 7am perhaps 8am - is that about right?

Need 3-4 hours then to get to Venice or Bologna airport and of course need to be at airport 2-3 hours before flight.  Guessing earliest flight home possible would be 2-3pm.

If disembarkation was available right at 6am then a flight as early as 12 or 1pm may be possible assuming shuttle leaves at 6:30 or 7.

Thanks for all the details.  We just booked an Iceland cruise on this ship for 2024.

Lots to do and research between now and then so I am sure I will be revisiting this thread.

15 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

You'll be fine. I was on the Star in May and we had a great time. Ship is smaller, but sometimes that is nice. The crew was wonderful to us so no complaints there, and food is subjective but we had no issues there either.

We got lucky and had a band called Ice Bucket that played a lot of great rock & roll cover songs. We sang along with them every night they played. I don't think they're still on board, but there were other options too. 

 

Not sure what cabin type you're in at that price, but for a 10 day cruise it sounds decent to me. Airfare - again, you'll hear mixed reviews. But if you can't find anything cheaper on your own, with the international flights it can add up to a big cost savings. If you do find something better on your own before 60+ days out - call and cancel the NCL flights. You can't wait too long on that though because once they book you - you're stuck. The other option too - see if you can fly in 1 day early. Give yourself a day in London to explore and that will also save a little bit of money and take out the anxiety of flying in day of for an overseas trip. We've done the NCL air about 4x so far and have not yet had any issues at all with it.

Drinks - again, subjective to everyone's own preference. But if you can drink 2-3 drinks a day the charge for the gratuities works itself out in your favor. It adds up quick, mimosa for breakfast, beer at lunch, frozen drink near the pool, wine with dinner, cocktail before the shows.... Figure each drink on average is about $10. If you'd rather pay as you go, just cancel the drink package and you'll get that $400 back if you cancel before you sail. If you like to try new things and don't want to have to debate if it's 'worth it' to try that jalapeno mojito (it is, it's great) having the package lets you be adventurous and just enjoy your vacation.

We are in a Club Balcony Suite - category MB as the wife has to have a tub which just means more money for me to spend lol.

Yes this cruise is port intensive as well we will basically only be on the boat at night to sleep or relax and eat breakfast and dinner.

Air concerns - it is a pretty big savings tbh (at least $1500+).  We would like to get the air info so we can see if the airline would let us upgrade to better seating since I know we will be in the cheapest worst seats but as I understand it that is hit or miss depending on airline and we won't know that info until 75 days from cruising date and it will be too late.

Drinks - yeah cancelling may make since just really surprised at how high the gratuities were especially on a "free" item.  On our last cruise I drank water and soda nothing else (mainly water) wife had mocktails, water, soda and that was all.  I guess its either eat the $400 gratuities and keep the package or pony up for the other beverage packages and their gratuities which my guess will be more than this.

Excursions - this is odd for sure.  They have 20 listed all but 3 are for the same port/day the 29th, the other 3 are all for the 25th.  There are none for any of the other port days.  This was never an issue on our RCCL cruise.  Granted I know we can book on our own outside of NCL as well but that $50 credit becomes pointless of course and we have to be sure that whatever tours we book will fit with our port timeframe. Just surprised by this 

Booked the 10 day Ireland tour out of Southampton for May 2023.

I got sucked in by the itinerary, drink package, wifi and the BOGO air etc.

After spending the last 2 days reading, researching etc I am having second thoughts.

Lots of bad reviews about the ship, the service, the food and more.  And of course the BOGO air seems to be a nightmare.

The cruise came to $6900 for everything (no excursions of course).  We are not really drinkers (very rare) and the gratuities we are hit with for the bev package are high at $400 (218 x2) - highly unlikely we would get full advantage of this unfortunately.  Wifi is limited to 150 mins as well (which was misleading but no surprise there).  Excursion choices are VERY LIMITED which sucks since part of the deal was $50 off excursions each day.  I do have 3 of the AMEX NCL offers (maybe a 4th if I check with my brother-in-law so I save at least another $1050 netting out to $5850).  Not cheap of course.

With all the negativity I am reading I am actually very much considering cancelling.

FYI we are new to cruising only done 1 - RC to Alaska which was amazing in every way.  We have nothing substantial to complain about RCCL (bathroom sucked but that's about it)

Any comments you guys care to share are welcome.

Thanks.

How does one book/schedule for these shuttles.  We just booked a Greece cruise that runs out of Ravenna as well.

Wife has the patch, we have dramamine as back up, and few other things just in case.  Most likely she will be fine once on the boat tbh.  Its the plane flights and the "anxiety" of thinking about it all that tends to compound things.  Long car rides are an issue as well and she can never read things in the car other than say a quick check of her phone or directions or something.  Anything longer and she has to roll down the window and stick her head out like our dog to settle things down.  

She has flown 6 times total in 30 years all with me.  2 flights for honeymoon down and back to Orlando 27 years ago and 4 flights out and back to Vegas about 15 years ago.  Otherwise its a heck no on airplanes for her.  Oddly enough we are taking a total of 5 flights for this journey but she knew she wanted to go and will gut it out.  We will get her some adult beverages before hopping on the flights and get her relaxed.  On the longer flights once she is asleep it will be no problem.

And yeah on disembarkation we plan to get some food and just take all the time we need getting off the boat.  Definitely no rush.  Flights kind of forced it this way which is fine.  It was either fly out at 9am very tough to make), 1:30, 4:30, or 8:30 so was a bit of no brainer for us.