Frisky070802

Actually, you are quite right! I looked back at my email and the first thing I got from my TA after transferring was a copy of the invoice but with a later due date that I simply didn't notice. Thanks.

We booked something on board last August, then changed the cruise in October. I thought we lost the 6-month payment deadline, as the invoice they sent us showed payment due maybe 10 months in advance. But we also transferred it to a TA, and so we lost all visibility into such deadlines. Much to my surprise, the TA told us it was due later -- corresponding I think to 6 months. So ... who knows! You definitely can change the cruise. As for the rest, YMMV.

The real question is, do they rely on the 2 devices per person as a way of capping traffic, or do they serve each device some max bandwidth? And of course they say never to stream over wifi. so yes, the pipe to the satellite is fixed, but that is separate from the question of sharing an access point…. It doesn’t mean necessarily that multiple devices on a router will get more data. Maybe?

I assume that the fixed pipe per connection applies to what talks to the ship. Just because you have 3 clients going through a router doesn’t mean the router gets served a higher bandwidth than you would see on your laptop or tablet.

I think you mean VPN?

That makes sense. A number of devices these days (such as Ring doorbells and such) work the same way, having you connect to them and share. The reason I thought it would be hard here is because usually you're just connecting long enough to provide the credentials for the router (a WEP key or whatever) and after that the network you connect to doesn't care whether you're the phone or an extra wireless router. Whereas on the ship, while I connected when I first arrived and provided my name and cabin, I was occasionally prompted for that info again. I wouldn't expect the router to be able to do that unless it essentially says "I'm connecting to the ship, and it's asking me X and Y. I'm giving you the form with that request, and whatever you respond, I'll respond to the ship with the same info". Doable --- but I didn't expect it to be a feature.

OK, good to know, regarding the router connecting. Not worth the space in my luggage (we did OK with a phone and tablet apiece) but if I ever also bring a laptop I may want to do that. As far as the hotspot goes, I thought phones let you provide a hotspot if you are connecting to the external network, but turn it off if the phone itself is on Wifi. That is certainly what I've experienced; maybe the newest phones recognize situations like this and support wifi bridging.

Interesting. I was going to say almost certainly not since the router still needs to access the ship's network and authenticate to it with a room number. How do you do that?

I was thinking the same to some extent, that even if the eclipse didn't work out, it should be a great cruise. But then I thought, if we can do something with a much better chance of seeing the full eclipse, we should. That might just mean staying on land 🙂.

I wasn't really finding much in the way of cruises that-a-way. What were you finding? But yes, Iceland was a brief thought, nothing more.

We actually put a hold on this on Monday as we were thinking what we'd missed this time around. However, a friend pointed out that the cloud cover in Iceland that time of year is especially high, so it seems like it could detract. Plus, there's the chance they aren't actually in the right place at the right time. So we're thinking Spain (even if it's not a cruise). (I see that as I was composing this, @OnTheJourney pointed at the info about the cloud issue, even better.)

That’s very sad. Good luck to her.

All true. But I still think if you think about Tripadvisor, Google, Yelp, etc, even if there are hundreds or even more comments on a restaurant, hotel, or what have you, you do get a high-level view from the overall ratings. Yes, someone might give it 1 star because they were unlucky enough to have a hung-over guide. But if 99% of the ratings are 4 and 5 stars, you have to figure the odds of having such a guide are low, and most people liked it. So maybe you go for it.

It’s true that long comments might be a lot to wade through, but a yelp-like rating system could help. If something gets 95% too ratings, it’s probably better than the one with many low ratings.

I wish. but I guess the closest you can get is to read the reviews of the full cruise and see if people commented on specific excursions.

Also.., responding to the port talks the day before would be too late to cancel for a refund. Which is probably intentional….

Putting talks on MVJ would be fabulous! Also, does CC have a place to aggregate comments and maybe ratings of tours? Or TripAdvisor?

Regarding historian talks, I know I mentioned this somewhere, but probably not CC. Last summer we were on BIE and one of the historians was really super enthusiastic, a joy to listen to. We were in the World Cafe with friends and our friend made a comment to that effect. From the next table we heard "why thank you!" We were so glad we were complimenting rather than criticizing a speaker ... I guess the walls do have ears!

I too am much more of a beer drinker than a wine drinker, but I found myself having wine much more on board. The beers were OK but unexceptional (as, I suppose, were the complimentary wines). I figure as long as it's not Bud, Miller, etc, it's fine.

I liked the port talks and would go when I was able to. One time I tried to play in my cabin and the audio quality was too poor so I gave up. I really liked the historian talks, though, and consider that a huge plus.

On BIE last August we did the "parade" in the lounge early on. I've heard some say it can be useful to keep your passport with you in the (hopefully very unlikely) event something causes you to miss the ship and you have to travel.

Even for shows in the theater, I don't recall any particular dress. I wouldn't worry about that.

I think the large number of cruise ads that say "gratuities included" would cause people to wonder if they're added in when it doesn't say that. Maybe some people are caught off guard, but I have to think the number is low. And as someone pointed out, it's in the Viking documentation.

Same here! It wasn't sounding so bad until the non-stop music thing was mentioned. Nooooo!

I knew in advance they weren't included. It's easy to find out.