P27159

Someone was asking for interior photos of the ship, and I was able to find this site that has two tiny photos, but it's better than nothing. I can't say that these actually bring back memories for me that I can confirm that's how I remember the interior to look like

https://www.cruiseserver.net/travelpage/ships/ca_dolph.asp

I wish I had photos of that ship, it was the first cruise I ever went on - I was still in college at the time.  I didn't know at the time what to compare it to, so I had no idea if the food was better or worse than other ships, or how small or large the ship was.  I just did some research on it today because I was trying to recall the names of all the ships I've been on, and didn't remember the name of this one. I didn't realize its history or how old the ship was at the time.  Back in those days, with film being expensive to buy and develop, I didn't take a whole lot of photos on the ship like I have done with more recent cruises.  I will always have the memory of the very cute girl I met on board - Marissa, if you ever read this, it's you.  I still have a glass I got from a drink I had on board, back when it was legal to drink in college.

2 hours ago, Cuckoo7 said:

I'm guessing it's only for Carnival passengers, for the reason you noted.  While we took the shuttle the last time we were there, my brother and his family just grabbed a cab outside the port because they only wanted to go to Margaritaville.  They didn't feel unsafe.  The only problem they had was that the driver said he'd be back to pick them up at a specific time and he didn't return.  So they had to get another cab for the way back.  If I recall, it was pretty expensive, so negotiate in advance and I'd say don't believe them when they say the amount is for both ways.

Thanks for the the information. It was very helpful.

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

You might ask on the Ports of Call board for Caribbean.  EM

Thanks for the tip, I just did that

I am wondering about this also, but we aren't sailing on Carnival, we are on MSC. I assume if a shuttle is using a sign and sail card, then they may only take Carnival passengers?

Our cruise was supposed to go to Ocho Rios, but at the last minute, they had to do a port change, so I am assuming that MSC doesn't use that port regularly and therefore doesn't have an existing infrastructure of excursions and shuttles (their site has had no choices of excursions for at least a week now from the date the port change announcement was made.  Due to the State Department travel advisory, we are also looking for a safe, short distance transfer, and figured that might be our best bet.  If anyone has any info we can use, I'd appreciate it.  Thanks

Our cruise ship recently had a port change from Ocho Rios to Montego Bay.  We just wanted a short drive over to Doctor cave beach, but wasn’t sure how safe it is to rely on local taxis. I am aware our state department has issued a  wet recent warning about traveling around Jamaica.  i’d prefer to hook up with a reputable tour company to give us round-trip transportation, even though it’s not that far, and will probably cost us a little more. Does anyone have any suggestions?

2 hours ago, Neotericisis said:

I have the opposite issue. My son is 14, we sail next week, and he will be 15 in July. I am going to see if I can get him into the teen section because he is a High School freshman who is 6ft tall and 220 lbs. I posed this question here and the responses said that it could go either way. I’ll let you know after I come back if I was able to bump him up to the teen section. I don’t understand why they have the youth group stop at 14 since that is High School age. My son would feel very awkward with the Middle School group. Plus he would stick out like a sore thumb. I plan on requesting manager approval if they deny my request. 

I have never cruised on MSC before, but have been on carnival and Royal Caribbean a few times, and have ran into that situation when my kids were a little younger, and we’re trying to fit them both in the same group.  Sometimes it was a matter of having our oldest pushed back into the younger kids group, and sometimes we were trying to get our youngest pushed into the older group.  We never had a problem doing that. I think they are a lot more flexible in those young to mid teen age groups, because they know the kids have different maturity levels, and it doesn’t make sense to be so rigid.
 

I asked my question because I think for 18-year-olds, there are some other elements that come into play, where they might be more rigid.  I can definitely see why they wouldn’t want an 18 or 19-year-old boy to be in a group with impressionable 15 and 16-year-old girls, for example.  My oldest daughter will be very unhappy if she shut out of the teen club, because that’s really the only way she’s going to be able to meet people.

Thanks to everyone who submitted replies to my question!

2 hours ago, Cruzinforpeace*** said:

My son is 17 and we cruised the Meraviglia in February.  He was not required to register for the teen program neither was he ever asked his age.  He said there were 19 year olds up there.  Probably not very safe for the younger teens in that age group but they were supervised for all the activities and in the teen area during the club hours.  We’re going again in July, God willing, and he’ll probably try to hang out again in the teen area as he will be 18 and a bit too young to enjoy the adult crowd and activities.  

Thanks for this.  Think you just gave us the best strategy, which is to not register the kids and have them just show up at the first event, and then see what happens.  Our experience with the team club on previous cruises is that our kids meet people at the first event, and then end up hanging out with those friends they made for the rest of the cruise, and don’t even go to any specific team club organized event..

18 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

I would say no. Normally its easier step down age Groups then up, but here you'd have an 18yr old Adult with Teens young as 14 and I'd doubt it being allowed. 

I understand why they have cut offs, but have found for the other ages they tend to be flexible.  I wonder if they will see my 18-year-old girl, who could probably pass for 15, and look at her differently than say an 18-year-old boy that looks like a man, and there may be concerns about preying on younger girls. I guess the only way to know for sure is to find out once we’re on board, but was wondering if anyone had this specific experience that can comment for sure one way or the other.

We have two kids, and our oldest daughter will have just turned 18 two weeks before the sailing.  Normally the teen clubs only go up through age 17, and was wondering if anybody knows if they are a little lenient I will make exceptions for someone that might be just barely out of the age range.  Our youngest is 16, and it would be nice if they can go to some of the activities together, because our 18-year-old probably wouldn’t be too comfortable among the kids a couple years older than her, and would probably feel left out of a lot of activities and meeting people. Thanks

25 minutes ago, #1packerfan said:

If you booked with Southwest, you can cancel it anytime and get credits back on your account that never have an expiration date. I've done that many times and have credits from a couple of years ago that I'm still waiting to use.

 

You cannot get actual cash back but you can get credits back for future flights.

Oh, wow, I virtually never fly on that airline, so I had no idea that they allowed you to be that flexible. I don’t think any of the other major carriers would do that. I wish I would have known that from the beginning.  Thanks for pointing this out.

57 minutes ago, LadeeBug100 said:

I know it's too late now, but to the op.

  (And useful info for others)

 

I think I read your airfare is booked with Delta.

 

They have a risk-free cancelation policy which allows cancelation within the first 24 hrs after booking.

   Although you booked non-refundable , from what I understand ,if you're outside of that 1 day period,you may cancel and get an e-credit.   

 

  The credit can be used on a future booking for airfare.

      

Actually, it was Southwest, not Delta, but I did find out from someone on one of these boards that even nonrefundable flights do have a 24 hour cancellation window without penalty.  I believe it is a DoT regulation. I didn’t know that at the time, and none of the agents I spoke to mentioned that to me, either, or else I would’ve done that.

thanks for commenting, at least there are a few people here that are reasonable and are here to make knowledgeable comments, and not the crap I have seen here that are only meant to be incendiary 

2 hours ago, DennysDad said:

You can't. You have your refund. And even if you didn't, the expense and time involved would not be worth it.

 

I would still consider Royal Caribbean over MSC. There screw ups are notorious for being 10x worse than Royals. 

After what I experienced, there’s no way I will ever sail with them again.  

2 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

Not yet.  She is becoming a Smart Ship with the app, but no wristbands yet.  EM

Thanks for the info!!

44 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

When you threatened to take them to court in your initial email, which you presented in the previous thread, you sealed the deal for them cancelling.

 

I don't know about you but I'm not doing business with people who choose the nuclear option as the first option when something goes wrong.

But that is NOT what happened.  You clearly didn’t read what I wrote here.  I find it interesting when people post with their smug comments, when it’s clear they are way off base because they can’t read carefully or properly.  I did NOT threaten legal action in my first email.  I had been through two rounds of escalations via phone communications first, then sent THREE emails to Michael Bayley and a couple of others that I had email addresses to, and as I clearly said, if you read what I wrote, I got NO RESPONSE.  at this point, I didn’t see any other way I would be able to talk to somebody that had any power to negotiate with me, which is why I sent the letter, mentioning that I am considering legal action.  It was only after that I even got a response at all.
 

I guess, in hindsight, I shouldn’t have even mentioned that, and just taken the cruise, and then sued them after the fact. I think I have a very good case based on my evidence, but the cruise document fine print may or may not be honored in court, depending on how the judge sees it, assuming I’d even be able to get to court, and not forced into arbitration, where the arbitrator is being chosen by the cruise line (probably hand-picked by them because they know they’ll get favorable verdict most of the time), and possibly have to travel to Florida in order to do that.

although now that I have booked a different cruise, I think will be happy with, and spent less money than we were currently on the hook for with RCL (although more than what I was originally planning to pay, but that was all of us in one room), perhaps this outcome is better than that other alternative.

but, based on principle, I don’t think RCL should be able to get away with stuff like this.  It’s THEIR website that they pay for, so they should be responsible for the prices, they book, and the fact that they should have displayed an error message and not let the transaction go through. If they’re booking for two rooms and four passengers were listed on the form.

some people here want to blame me because I didn’t notice the gratuities were for only two people, and ignoring the fact that RCL was MUCH more in the wrong throughout this entire process.  They offered a reasonable contract, which was accepted, they should honor it. PERIOD.  Especially when someone relies on that contract for other purposes (promissory estoppel, per the law).  But it seems RCL thinks they are above the law, and evidently, they might be.

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

How about people who booked legs of the world cruise. End of feb the cruisers onboard voted which route so it wasnt known until close to when the ship would be close to where people might be able to board their legs, ... or miss them.

 

One guy booked 4 nights nonrefundable hotel in dubai and he was cancelled and only offered a refund or book another cruise, with $100 obc. If you got cancelled they arent covering hotels or airfare to far flung places. I'm one who books ahead. 

 

Ship cant go thru the red sea because it's too dangerous so it's going around africa. Hotel in dubai isnt cheap either. Royal has gotten chintz with what it will do to make pax happy. Most of us here can name a lot like this. 

Something like this would be easier to accept if it was something beyond the cruise ships control, like weather, safety concerns (like what’s happening in Haiti right now), etc.  But this case was different: there was no stated reason for canceling, except for my two possible assumptions, neither of which are good reasons to cancel someone.

but with all of the information, I’m seeing here, I’m going to keep it in mind in the future when I book cruises.  

If anyone else is still reading this, that knows the specific answer for the specific Divina ship (and not a different MSC shift, since this may not apply equally to all ships): does anyone know if the Divina offers wristbands that allow you to open your cabin door, pay for on board activities, etc. so you don’t have to carry the plastic card around with you everywhere?

2 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

How many times have folk come here to complain that their cruise 7 month out cruise has been chartered, and they now have airfare they can’t use. Legally they made it right by offering a full refund after final payment. 

I did want to mention one other thing regarding this: at least, in the charter case, they gave the passengers an actual REASON why they were being canceled.  I don’t think I would’ve liked that reason either if I was in that position, but at least a reason was given.  In my case, they did NOT give a reason, and they were such cowards, that they made a low level employee do their dirty work.

Either their reason was just vindictiveness, or more likely, they probably knew they were in trouble if I sued them for the price difference so they cancelled me so I can’t sue for the difference anymore 

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

How many times have folk come here to complain that their cruise 7 month out cruise has been chartered, and they now have airfare they can’t use. Legally they made it right by offering a full refund after final payment. 

Honestly, I didn’t even realize something like that could happen.  I am not a frequent visitor on these boards, so I have not seen the issue you mentioned, but thanks for bringing this up.  I assume that if you book a cruise and flights together as a package through a travel agent, you would get a full refund for the cruise plus the flights if that charter situation occurs, is that correct?
 

I have learned a lot based on this experience, plus some of the comments I have seen on this board.

46 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

First, thank you for coming back and posting the outcome of your situation.

 

I meticulously followed and replied in your first thread. Due to some of the context of that thread, certain posts were removed but I read them all before they were removed.

 

Good, bad, or indifferent, my original advice was given in good faith.

 

Royal has completely ticked you off with their treatment of the situation.

 

You always have the right to pursue litigation and that is your prerogative.

 

Not many minds will be converted here. Almost all of the posters "for or against" your actions will continue to cruise Royal despite Royal's treating you the way they did. I cannot add anything more to the conversation.

 

I wish the best for you.

 

Regards.

Thank you very much for your reasonable comments.

53 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I just saw the screenshots you posted, but unless I missed it, I didn’t see the confirmation screen confirming your purchase. 

I don’t have a screenshot for the confirmation, because it didn’t really have any information. I don’t remember exactly what it said, but it was something along the lines of “transaction successful” and didn’t give a summary or breakdown of the cost.

28 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Keep us posted after your lawsuit is settled. I’ll be curious to know the outcome. 

Thanks, but I don’t think I can sue them now.  I am not sure what I can claim are damages.  Unless I sue them for a token item I bought specifically for that cruise, and then ask for punitive damages based on my situation, but that’s probably a major stretch.  I think this is why they canceled me.  I thought I would get their attention and they would reasonably negotiate with me, but they didn’t bother.

Thanks to all of you for your responses, they were extremely helpful to me!