cruise2relax

Thanks for posting these!  We are on in three weeks.  Am I reading the patter correctly in that two dining rooms are open for breakfast?  If so that is new.

I appreciate all the responses so much.  The tour is directly through the vendor and is a food tour.  We have found it to be 50/50 if food tour companies will refund or not for missed ships due to the fact that restaurants and food vendors provision for the tours.  There are other FYI stuff we are planning to do but on the fence with the tour.

Odd question I know.  There is a tour I am very interested in taking with in port but they have a 24 hour cancelation rule.  I may be willing to take the risk if this is not a port that routinely gets missed on fljords cruises.  Can anyone assit?

Orvieto has been recommended before by friends who have been there.  It is not too inconvenient.  Most importantly we are looking for a more relaxed place to be for a couple of days.  It seems like there is stuff to see and the Umbrian cuisine is a draw.  Will check out the other options as well.

October and our flight out is at 9:30am.  We are looking at Orvieto for a night then perhaps stay near Termini the next night and take the airport express train first thing in the morning

We are ending a cruise in Rome and would like to spend preferably two nights somewhere but not in Rome or any other larger city.  Looking for something relaxing with that local vibe.  Then would be flying out of Rome.  At a loss.

Our next cruise is on the Sky so reading this thread is a bit of a disappointment.  That said, we were just on the Island Princess in October after reading what could easily be defined as the worse threads about a Princess ship ever.  We had a great time with great service (a few missteps here and there but nothing drastic).  Hope I find the same on the Sky in May.  Trying to find the glass half full everyone:  I am on vacation, not cooking, cleaning, etc in a great locale.  That starts me off in a fairly good place.

Hoping folks can give me some advice.  We have a mid morning Italo Florence to Rome train booked on November 11th.  I have learned that Italo support staff (for lack of a bette term in translation) is striking from 9am-5pm that day.  Will my train be cancelled?  I have heard that they sometimes do not happen, that sometimes it is low impact to services and I have read run for the hills.  I could shift to a train before 9am, not ideal but more ideal that no train and scrambling.  Thoughts?  Advice?  I appreciate in advance.  Thank you.

I do not like carrying my passport but always carry my passport card, would that be sufficient if stopped by police for ID check?

what ship was this?  I have never seen anything like this but I would like to.

18 minutes ago, John Bull said:

 

Sorry, @cruise2relax , you've just been unlucky with your date.🙁

 

 

Ugh.  I certainly hope this is not a harbinger of other travel related issues for this trip.  When they do this type of service on the weekends, does it ever bleed over to the weekdays?  We can Stay in Bath until Monday and take the train to Southampton then but that is the date we embark so I would hate to be in a position if something went wrong.  That is why we were planning on arriving in Southampton Sunday not Monday.

4 minutes ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

There is engineering work on the line that weekend, so a partial closure with a replacement bus service in place (the two change options, which otherwise would be the direct option). This is unlikely to change. 
 

The one change option is a long way round via Reading. 

Thanks for the information.  That does not make me happy by any means and may seek alternate means of travel.

On 8/7/2023 at 1:22 PM, Globaliser said:

 

If you don't see the cheap fares when booking opens, then just leave it for a while and check back to see whether any Advance fares have been loaded for your date. £32.70 should be a ceiling on how much you have to pay, however late you book, so don't feel pressured into buying a ticket at that fare.

One more question since you have been so very helpful.  I am noting that the weekend (saturday and sunday) of October 28/29 is showing no direct trains at all.  The trains they show have either 1 or 2 changes and are 2+ hours.  I checked other weekends in case it was a weekday versus weekend thing, but alas it is not.  It appears to be just the weekend we will be there,  Am I missing something?  Will they be scheduled later?

1 minute ago, Globaliser said:

 

It isn't necessary to buy a ticket in advance, because UK trains generally do not sell out in the usual sense and you should always be able to buy a ticket for immediate travel.

 

However, it can be cheaper to buy in advance. Just as a random test, a walk-up fare for travel this afternoon would be £32.70. But the cheapest advance purchase fares for as far ahead as you can currently book (27 October) are £12.50. (Note that cheap advance purchase fares do not always go on sale when the train itself goes on sale.)

 

 

I think that a few people have reported problems with South Western Railway sometimes not accepting non-UK addresses. But one workaround is that you should be able to buy the same ticket from pretty much any other train operating company, at exactly the same price; and there are plenty of them that will happily accept a non-UK address. They should all do e-tickets in exactly the same way.

Thank you very much.  It is October 29th we need so I will check in a few days as that advanced fare is worth it.  Also check out other line for ticket purchase.

This is a UK train transfer question (albeit not from London).  We are spending a few days in Bath prior to our cruise this Fall and are planning on taking the train from Bath to Southampton.  That would be on South Western Railways.  How necessary is it to purchase in advance?  does the price increase much?  If advisable to purchase in advance, is there a way to do e-tickets if live in US because it does not appear as if I can register an account with them from the US whcih I believe is required for e-tickets.  Any information is appreciated.

14 minutes ago, roxievegas said:

How about the short notice.  This new policy goes into effect next month, within two weeks.  Most people purchase/pay deposit/pay in full a year in advance.  Now they have to fork over more money.

It should be that the policy goes into effect for new bookings.

That I agree is tight.

I am a little surprised at the staunch reactions on this thread.  I am fine with the changes and am looking forward to see the three courses menus.  That said, the reality is the business model is an important and probably a necessary one right now.  One cannot forget that all these cruise lines are bleeding heavily from the pandemic and will for years.  So to stack the packages to entice and move people over to them rather than no packages or "standard" because it is identified stable income rather than the variable of standard and what they pay on board.   That assists with budgets, provisioning, projections debt reduction etc.  On some level you could think of it similar to an HOA monthly fee, it allows the HOA to plan, contract, look ahead, save for projects etc rather than frequent special assessments.    The flip side for the consumer is a known fixed amount that can be budgeted appropriately in advance.  And if you think this is unique to Princess, you are very much mistaken.

Thanks so much.  Is something up with Trenitalia's website, it shows no trains for this journey in November nor any high sped trains in the morning I want to go from Florence back to Rome.  I find that odd since I am looking in the beginning of November.

I was wondering if anyone can tell me the average time that disembarkation in Rome starts.  We will be on the Island Princess and it says 6am.  We do walk off with luggage and am trying to arrange train to Rome to Florence and would like to arrange it as early as I can in the morning but not so aggressive that I will be stressed.  Also, I heard that the port offers a shuttle to the train station for 6 euro pp.  true?  something you just grab there or book in advance.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Any ideas for the best company to use for a half a day tour from the Salerno port to Ravello?  been to Positano and Amalfi before but not Ravello.  Any help is appreciated.

While not thrilled the outsourcing of so many elements of the cruise experience (art program, shops, spa, FCC, etc) I completely understand it.  Simply put it is overhead reduction.  You are seeing it across all industries.  It is far more cost effective to contract out theses services than staff, inventory and manage them.  I would prefer them to spend the money on food and beverage.  We should keep in mind these companies bled money for two years during COVID and it will take years to recover. 

That is awful for the passengers and the crew (who will be dealing with very unhappy passengers).  As terrible as it is, thank goodness they had the cabins to move people to versus being a sold out voyage.  I can only imagine how complicated that would be.  The dining rooms will be a nightmare of congestion, again thank goodness not a full ship as it may help the flow.  

I fail to understand the big secret on the part of Princess.  It could easily be a marketing tool for them to advertise and brew excitement.  If accurate about Catch by Rudi and the Irish pub, both of which will be brand new to the line, shout it from the rooftops and gain momentum.

Sounds more like a promo that Whataburger is running from the screenshot, not that Princess is joining forces with them.  

We have good fiends that will be going on a cruise later this year.  We would like to treat them to dinner at one of the specialty restaurants.  I have looked at the website and it does not have offering such as that.  On Board credits yes, Balcony breakfast and dinner, yes but not this.  Anyone successfully done this?  If so, how?