murphy4

Hello,  

Its been a long time...7 years since I have been on a Disney Cruise.   I am trying to get door magnets where the names are made of pictures of a favorite Disney Character.  I had this done long ago by someone on CC.  I would love to get some new ones or have someone design me some.  I looked on Etsy but haven't found exactly what I am looking for.  Does anyone know of anyone that designs the door magnets?  TIA

Hubby and I just got back from our first Viking River Cruise, The Rhine Getaway. we are 54 &52. passengers of all ages were on board, we met a great couple in their late 30's that LOVE river cruises. The tours were very interesting and when the morning tour was done we just got off the ship and walked around the towns.

Silly naive question here... how do you "shop for a TA" ? We've never used one, but I see that a lot of folks on CC do. I don't even know where to begin. Pick a certain vacation and then ask several to price it out? How do you even choose who to look at?:o

I don’t think you can ask for recommendations directly on here, I believe you can post for people to email you with recommendations or websites

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Silly naive question here... how do you "shop for a TA" ? We've never used one, but I see that a lot of folks on CC do. I don't even know where to begin. Pick a certain vacation and then ask several to price it out? How do you even choose who to look at?:o

I would ask your friends that travel who they use.

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If you only want medical and med evac insurance, and to not cover the cost of the trip, you can buy insurance with a $0 trip cost.

 

I recently did this for a trip. Just put in 0 for trip cost. Got medical, med evac, rental car (which I needed), luggage, and all the other side coverages. Just no trip cost coverage.

 

For a 10 day trip, it cost $50.

Confused as to why someone would not want to cover the cost of their trip..if they are spending 5-10k on a vacation wouldn’t they want that back if they have to cancel?

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So do you have to wait until you dock and then hope to find the vendor on the boardwalk? Any details on the name/website of the segway co? I'd rather book in advance.

We just walked over to Phillipsburg and saw the guy riding the Segways. Asked him where we rented. It was a lot of fun

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HELP!! I trying to coordinate a family cruise and we selected a short HAL cruise since we are on the West Coast and we have several newbies who don't want to long a cruise however I am really having difficulties ALREADY with HAL and most of us aren't even booked. Some family members have booked through AMEX and they had no problems.

My problems began when I was assigned a consultant who works the same hours that I do so we are not able to communicate. I requested a consultant who is available later than 430 PM and was supposedly assigned someone who never called me. I called and left a message, no return call. I have tried to call again and I'm transferred to some answering system that says the extension they transferred me to isn't set up so I can't complete the call!

I want to select my cabins to make sure the are in the same area but no matter what price point I choose in any cabin sizes, it tells me that I have a guaranteed cabin and will be assigned a cabin prior to sailing. Does HAL not allow anyone to choose their own cabin? My family member who booked through AMEX were able to.

Is this typical of HAL? Anyone have any pointers or suggestions I've missed?

It may be that only guarantee cabins are left. Maybe contact a travel agent to help?

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Yeah, it is a lot of money to tie up but I understand that cancelling prior to 91 days of sailing would get it all back minus a $250 pp 'administrative' fee. And I'm paying by credit card, so if they go bust I am covered. So while the big up-front payment doesn't thrill me, neither is it a dealbreaker for us, although I could certainly understand that it would be for a lot of folks. Risking 500 to save 1200 is not a bad deal.

 

 

 

I think I'll just go ahead and book directly with them when the time come. Do you have any cabin selection advice - midship vs. further aft?

 

 

 

Thanks.

Booking with a TA will benefit you as the Agent is your advocate. It doesn’t cost anything it use a TA and it helps small business!

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I am not seeing it - probably because my OBC is from travel agent, not Viking

It should still show

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How did you this online?

Yup. Just went on My Viking Journey

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I find it distressing that there does not seem to be a set policy at Viking about final payment date. First they try for virtually immediate payment upon booking. Then, if you dicker - they quickly offer an extension of time which may be different from what was offered someone else. Yet none of it seems to add up to their published policy of “90 days before the cruise”. It is all quite unsettling. I figure they must have bonus tiers for their booking agents based on final payment dates negotiated. The earlier an agent can get a customer to make final payment, the higher the bonus. It’s the only explanation I can think of for such diversity in payment date arragements and all the bargaining that seems to go on about it. I am sure they have nice ships and lovely cruises, but all this bartering makes me uncomfortable.

Agents do not get paid until the client travels. Viking does ask for the final payment extremely early, however, they do have a great product and as long as their ships are full and people are paying the full payment so far in advance there is no incentive on the business end to change it.

I’m new to river cruising and have been talking to a Viking rep regarding a Jan 2020 sailing. I was told the deposit would be $500pp which is fine. But final payment will be Dec 2018 which is over a year in advance. I would like to think I could invest my 25K in that years time.

ask them to move it to 6-9 months prior to the trip. I get my clients that time frame all the time

Thanks for writing. How did you book them using OBC ahead of time? I can't figure it out.

My Viking Journey has all the info you need

Is there any way to use onboard credit to book optional excursions in advance of the cruise?

I was able to use my OBC for booking an optional shore excursion.

You are braver than I am. For $50 each we chose our flights. That way we could, at least, be scheduled to arrive in Prague in the morning and have the day there.

since you paid the $50 for the Air Plus when were you able to schedule your flights?

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We're still pondering Scenic vs Viking. The Scenic website is a bit hard to use. Does anyone know if either line discounts the fare if you book your own air? Or do you have to pay for airfare in your cruise fare?

Viking has a promotion for $395 airfare. You are better off booking with them, if you don’t book with them it will only save you $395 per person

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We're looking at booking our first river cruise. We've been on 20 ocean cruises and are soon to be empty nesters. We're interested in the Amsterdam to Budapest itinerary for June 2019. We've read a lot of the helpful stickies at the top of the forum and some of the comparison articles. We're also reading the Frommer's EasyGuide to River Cruising.

 

 

 

We've specifically been looking at Scenic on 6/10/19 and Viking on 6/11/19. We recognize that Scenic is more expensive but also more all inclusive. On our ocean cruises we've tended to DIY or book private excursions on our European cruises, but it seems that with river cruises it may make more sense to go with the ship's excursions.

 

 

 

Any tips or suggestions will be much appreciated!

I am doing the Basel to Amsterdam June 23rd 2018 with Viking! Email me if you want help or Info! Rdmurph@comcast.net

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does anyone know what time you can board and disembark? never did a Viking River Cruise!

Unfortunately insurance would not help as AQSC did run a trip. They attempted to provide an additional experience to make up for the missed experiences. The problem was that the experiences they provided were of little value. Compare to being promised trip to the Vatican then being switched to "enjoy a free pizza in Rome".

just wondering if you had "cancel for any reason" insurance. did you purchase the insurance through AQSC or independently?

This is a great thread! I am looking to book the American Empress for my mom as soon as the June 2020 opens for booking. I am the TA booking for my mom, she finds it very handy to just call and say "book it" :'):'):'):'):halo: :D

has anyone done both of these lines for a River Cruise? Looking at the Romantic Danube Nurenberg to Budabest. any feed back? pros? cons? Thanks!!

Hey, I'd love some names for Grand Turk dive shops if you'd be willing to share :D

Blue Water Divers was wonderful!!!! they were ready for us when we got to the shop. There were 4 divers plus the dive master. we saw a shark, a HUGE green Turtle, a pod of 14 dolphins and whales breeching in the distance!

I CANNOT recommend Royal in Aruba. I booked a jeep for the day. They took my credit card and confirmed via e-mail. While on the ship, I received an e-mail stating that they "would not have a jeep" for me. I replied that I have a confirmation, and that they have my credit card. I told them that I needed SOMETHING to drive that day, even if not a jeep, and even if not from them, and asked if they could assist, but their only response was, "sorry, no cars."

Oh wow! Sorry to hear that! I hope you found a car through another company!

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With the guarantee once they assign you a cabin do they ever take it away and reassign you??

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We did our first guarantee on HAL last year and received our cabin the day before we sailed.Since we were in Sydney,I had printed luggage tags with no cabin #'s an just filled them in.The ship was showing sold out for weeks before the cruise so I can't figure out why they waited till the last minute to assign cabins.

they probably wait to assign cabins until they make sure that no one else wants to take advantage of the "upsell" email. after all, why give someone a verandah or suite as an upgrade when they can make money on an upsell.;)