travelqueen555

Thank you for providing this great information.  I have not yet looked fully at the PLF form, but can you confirm that if you are staying in a hotel pre-cruise, you will need to list BOTH the hotel as well as the cruise information.  I will be traveling to Greece in September first staying 4 nights in Athens, then boarding the NCL Jade.    Thank you.

Totally agree with all posts above.  Have used AAI many times for port stops as well as when staying in Rome for three nights, and everything was perfect.  Giuseppe and Fabrizio will have suggestions for each tour day, but you are able to let them know what you would like to see during a tour,  and they will help you plan your day.  I have also recommended AAI to many others, and everyone has been so happy and pleased, and said it was their best tour of the their trip. 

All I wanted to know at this time, is has anyone else been notified or heard anything about a new law affecting tour companies in Italy.  Obviously none of you have.  So yes, it could be translation issues or that I misunderstood.  I do not want to cause any rumors or spread incorrect information, because I do not HAVE any more information at this time.   If I learn more, I will share.

If no one else has been notified of any changes, then the information as I understood it is probably not correct.  Thanks everyone.

Yes, that is all I have been informed of.  Do you by chance have any information at all?

Thank you for responding.  I do not have a link to any information, I have been notified by the company I have tours already set up with, that my tours are now in jeopardy.  At this time I do not wish to name a tour company, only want to see if any one else has heard of any issues. 

Has anyone been notified about changes in tours previously booked, due to new laws passed in Italy?  Have been all set for tours for quite a while, and now hearing our tours may not be as secured as we thought?  Still trying to work things out, so just wondered if anyone else has encountered any issues.

We have also used my friend Fabrizio at All Around Italy a few years back for all of our tours while we were in Italy. Once you do a tour with Fabrizio you will also call him your friend. He not only knows exactly where to take you for the best tour in what ever area of Italy you are in, but he is funny, making for a fun tour day.

I will be returning to Italy with a large group this April, and have booked him to take the entire group on all our tours throughout Italy. He and his assistant Mary have been so helpful and have responded very promptly via email to answer all my questions in setting up the tours for us. I can't wait to see him again in April and am excited for my group to meet him. I will post a trip report regarding the various tours and what they included when I return.

Hi all, first time on Princess. When sailing with other "companies" - it was stipulated you could not use onboard credits for gratuities. I think I an understanding that on Princess you are allowed to designate your onboard credits toward the gratuities that are placed on your cabin charges. Not referring to the 3 for free where your gratuities are free, referring to actual onboard credits to be used for excursions, drinks, etc. Is this correct?

Thank you for your information - it greatly helped in my decision to change the flight from 12:15 to 1:40 pm. I did not wish to end an amazing cruise with a nervous trip to the airport - just not worth it.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge

John thank you for all you excellent information on these threads. Based on your information above, would there be any problem booking a flight departing London Heathrow at 12:15pm? Princess states our ships (Sapphire Princess) arrives at 5:00 am - however unsure how soon we could disembark. Princess also states not to book a flight that departs before 12:00 noon. Based on your information above, I'm wondering if 12:15pm is cutting it a little too close.

Thanks all - perfect answers - exactly what I was looking for

Thank you both. . is this done only when you are ready to depart, or is it possible to reserve a specific time the day before. I have been on other cruise lines, where the evening before you are able to reserve a certain tender time. Is this available on Princess or do you just go to a certain area that day when you are ready to depart.

I have done a search for this subject and did not find an answer, sorry if this is a repeat question.

This will be my first time on a Princess cruise - although have cruised many times with other cruise lines. I am curious how Princess handles getting your voucher/ticket for a tender to a port of call. Do you book a certain time? how do you go about booking this? When is this first availble to book? How is the procedure for lining up for your tender time? Do you wait in a certain area?

I will be on the Sapphire Princess leaving from Rome. Thank you in advance for any input on this.

I highly recommend Fabrizio at All Around Italy http://www.allarounditaly.net. We have used him twice in the past and will be using him again in 2019. He lives in Rome, but see his website - offers tours to other destinations in Italy from either Rome or at the cruise ports. He is so funny but also passionate about Italy and a wonderful guide. By law he can only have 8 persons in one van, but he has several drivers, so you may need to check with him, but you could be together but in separate vehicles. If you email him he will respond within a day. He also just gave me great hotel recommendations for when I am staying in Rome.

Contact Fabrizio at All Around Italy.

http://www.allarounditaly.net

He is wonderful. We have used him several times. He lives in Rome but does tours in many Italian cities. We used him for Rome, Florence, and Naples - he has a great personality. If he is not personally available he has other drivers that are great also.

We have also just booked the April 6th, 2019 - Rome to Southampton. Seems a long time to wait, but have been eyeing this itinerary on Princess and could not do it in 2018, so am excited to have booked for 2019.

Thanks for posting the pics. Quick question. Were you able to just get off the Sky and walk around on your own. Did you need to be part of an escorted tour arranged by NCL?

You have to at least check out my friend Fabrizio at All around Italy

http://www.allarounditaly.net/

My family has used him several times. He is not only a wonderful guide, but will keep you laughing while he shows you all of Italy. He will meet you at any and all ports throughout Italy. We met him at three different ports for one cruise. As we were sailing on our cruise at night, he was driving to the next port. It was like meeting a family member each day. He has room for 8 persons in his beautiful van. I found others to join us on each tour via cruise critic on our roll call, and we each split the cost at the end of each tour. Oh by the way, those persons we located on cruise critic and met during our tour. . .are still friends of ours today.

Such a memorable experience, I could not help from sharing.

How was the cruise? I am planning to do the same trip about this time next year, and haven't been able to find reviews of the trip. It will be on the AMADante -- probably the first or third week in Sept. Paris to Prage or vice versa. I'd love to hear the details!

Hello there, I had every intention of coming back and posting a review, but. . . first of all. . we saw and did so much in the two weeks of travel, that trying to put in all in one review was just too overwhelming. I also started a new job right after returning and just have not had much time to post about the trip.

I did respond to a few previous threads that had questions about river cruising, here is one in particular

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2260108

AMA was wonderful. Great service, great food. The Itinerary was amazing also. I'm just not sure river cruising is for me. I think I like spending a little more time in each city/destination. I felt very rushed through each town we stopped at along the rivers, with very little free time, before time to board the bus to return to the AmaDolce. (see thread above).

As I said in the previous thread that I copied the link above, I was not at all unhappy. Who could be unhappy traveling throughout Europe, with great service and great food. I feel so fortunate to have been able to take this trip.

I just think I personally would like to spend at least an entire day in one location. I loved the three days in Paris. AMA offered only one prepaid city tour that was very good, then we had the remaining three days on our own with the luxury of AMA taking care of hotel and luggage and transporting us to next location. Prague was a fairy tale city. Again, AMA had one prepaid city tour that was very good and we had the remainder of the two days on our own, and loved exploring on our own. So. . I think it is just me. After researching other itineraries as suggested in above linked thread, I do think there are other rivers cruises, where you are docked for the entire day at least one or two days.

My favorite days on the cruise itself, were the two afternoons after 1) touring Trier in the morning, then boarding the ship to float down the Mosel river with all the vineyards along the bank and 2) the day after touring Cochem/Koblenz in the morning and crusing down the Rhine seeing all the castles in the afternoon. Both days were beautiful sunny days. The rest of our trip turned cold, cloudy rainy - this could play a part in some of my review.

Our trip was amazing, you will have a great time. One bit of advice. . have your choices of your tours planned ahead of time before you board. The cruise director called for an meeting and also a requirement our turning in of our choices for all tours for the entire week while we were floating down the Mosel on a beautiful day. I did not want to be inside making these choices at that time, I wanted to be up on the upper deck, but it was my fault for not being better prepared and having made these decisions ahead of time.

One last note. . if you cruise in the direction from Luxembourg to Nuremberg, the upper deck will only be open on the first two days (mentioned above) the remainder of the cruise it is closed due to low bridges and locks.

Have a great trip. I did not mean to try to sound negative about the cruise, only wanted to prepare you for "what is".

[quote name=curiouser123;47976872 I would have been better off charging the rest of the cruise on my credit card THEN filing the claim with the Norwegian travel insurance agency.

I wouldn't want anyone else to have to go through this' date=' so I'm sharing what happened in case it can help someone else. Try not to flame me too much![/quote]

I just have to jump in here. I am not at all trying to flame the OP, but in her above quote, she is advising others what she should have done. In my opinion, if OP had paid the final payment - including insurance - she may not have been covered for that amount either.

The insurance plan says "Cancel for any Reason", but has this exclusion regarding actually getting your money refunded.

"BookSafe provides reimbursement for the prepaid, non-refundable, unused portion of your vacation should you need to cancel or interrupt your vacation due to unexpected illness, injury, job termination and other covered reasons as listed in the plan. The plan also covers additional out-of-pocket expenses for meals and accommodation, as well as for travel expenses to catch up to the vacation due to covered travel delays. Best of all, if your reason for cancellation is not covered for reimbursement under the plan, we provide you with a credit for a future cruise."

The OP has not stated what her reason for cancellation was, but even if it was covered reason, the claim still could have been denied for "pre-existing conditions". If she had paid her final payment, plus the cost of insurance (as she is stating she should have done), and then cancelled, if the cancel reason was not covered, she would not have gotten a full refund, but either 75% or 90% (depending on coverage chosen) toward a future cruise. She still would have lost a portion of the monies she had paid.

"Norwegian Cruise Line will provide guests who are denied due to a non-covered reason with a future cruise credit equal to 75% of the non-refundable cancellation charge to use on your next cruise with us. For guests who upgrade to BookSafe Platinum Protection, this credit is increased to 90% of the non-refundable cancellation charge. Important note: Cruise credits cannot be applied to government taxes and fees, port expenses, air add-ons, land packages, travel protection, Shore Excursions, gratuities, incidentals, or any purchases of a personal nature. They are non-transferrable and may not be combined with other cruise credit certificates or fare reduction coupons."

The point that the NCL rep gave her incorrect information is a point of frustration and I do not want to take away from that. I only wanted to say her advice to others . . to pay the full amount plus insurance, then later file a claim, still may not have gotten her her full amount refunded and would have been another cause of frustration.

In Europe I have river boated on the Seine, Soane, Rhone, Dordogne, Garonne, Gironde, Scheldt, Meuse, Waal, Rhine, Mosel, Main, Elbe, Danube, Dneipr, Neva, Volga, Moscow plus various associated canals (I may have missed some). I have also done canal barges in Europe, and river boats outside of Europe (eg Nile, Yangtze, Amazon, etc).I think that Nuremburg, Bamburg and Trier almost always require shuttles and Baden-Baden, Rothenburg, Heidelburg etc will involve longer bus rides. I have docked in the center of Koblentz, Cologne, Frankfurt, Mainz, Wurzburg and numerous smaller towns. With increased numbers of river boats center city docking is becoming more problematic and 2015 has been an especially bad year for river water levels in Europe, both resulting in more bussing than usual, so I don't question the experiences other have had. I am merely reporting my experiences over the last 20 years.

 

Thom

Thanks Thom for that info. I find it very interesting. I do wonder if things are changing these days or did it just happen to be the cruise I chose. As you mentioned above. . . yes. . . Nuremburg, Bamburg and Trier were on on our stops they were bus rides, but Koblentz, Mainz, and Wurzburg were on our itinerary also. These were all drop and sail stops, where the ship dropped us off for our tours and continued sailing, and buses took us to meet up with the ship. So no docking all day for the ship where you could walk on and off. The ship did dock in Knitizgen late one afternoon and early evening before dinner. We chose not to take the included walking tour and did walk around that town on our own, but that was just for a few hours.

I do think the low water played a part in this, but I also got the feeling that this was the norm for this particular cruise. I don't think the ship was ever scheduled to stay in one place all day, even before the low water.

By the way, I did not read into your posts that you were questioning anyone. I also was just posting my recent experience. I appreciate hearing that what I thought would take place, does happen on other itineraries. I probably needed to do more research. Thanks again for the information on your previous cruises.

I can't repeat enough. . . I am not unhappy, we had a wonderful trip, AMA's crew were amazing, the food delicious and the tours were great. I am so happy to have experienced river cruising, and to cross it off my list. I am quite sure in time, I will be researching on these boards to choose another one.

travelqueen555 -- what TravelerThom described was typical of both our Rhine and Rhone cruises. Both often involved bus rides for one of the day's excursions, but the ship was docked right in a town and you could roam around on your own after the excursion or after dinner.

Thanks good to know for future. I will have to check out those itineraries.

While it is absolutely necessary to remain flexible on river cruises as things can be changed because of river and other conditions, I will say that on the 12 river cruises I have done (including 27 nights thus far in 2015) a significant majority of my ports stops have allowed me to walk off the boat within a few blocks of the center of town. IME a typical day involves being able to walk off the ship at breakfast time and probably not have to be back on board until 5 or 6 pm. Typically there is an included maybe one hour slow walking tour of the town leaving shortly after breakfast, which is generally useful to get the lay of the land, but is by no means required, and the remainder of the day is up to you - lunch on the boat or in town on your own, prehaps an optional afternoon tour, etc. I have on occassion rented a car for the day and headed out on my own to see something of special interest to me (such as towns where some of my ancestors came from). I have certainly encountered busing to sites and short amounts of free time (especially for optional tours), but I have experienced that far less than half the time.

 

Thom

Thom,

What you describe above is what I had expected for at least one or two of the days, and it did not happen once. We were only on a 7 night cruise, so maybe that made a difference. Our three nights in Paris and two nights in Prague were of course what ever we chose to do. Not sure what rivers you have sailed on, but we would have loved to have had even one day such as that. That is what we are used to on the ocean cruises. We still had a wonderful trip, and I repeat what we saw was amazing, just not exactly as I thought it would be.

One other note I will add here about river cruising. . as the ship only had 146 passengers, everyone became very close to each other. When we left Prague on the final day, everyone was hugging and sad to say goodbye. We all said we had many many new friends. I have never felt like that on the large ocean cruises. It was pretty special.

Whether or not you will be bused to town or be able to walk off the boat right into town absolutely varies by town! Read reviews of itineraries you're considering to see what people say about each port....

Definately agree Hoyaheel. Good recommendation. . however, even someone else's past experience about being able to walk off the boat can change in an instant. At one of the towns we were supposed to be docked at for the entire morning, but because of low waters and slow cruising speed, the ship needed to keep sailing instead of staying in one location to make up for lost time. Therefore in that town also, we were bused to tour, then bused back to ship at at a location further down the river. The crew were changing schedules and itineraries every day based on the time it would take the ship to navigate the river. Our poor cruise director worked day and night to make all of this happen so smoothly.

I posted in another thread, the best thing you can do is be spontaneous and go with the flow. What we saw and did was amazing. AMA did a great job in making us feel as if we had hardly been affected by the changes at all.

We just returned from our 1st river cruise with AMA, Paris to Prague. I agree with Caviargal, it is not like Ocean Cruising. I have to say we were unaware ahead of time that the ship did not just dock in a port, and you were not able to just walk off and tour. It was not a bad thing, just different.

Each day's time schedule is very different based on a lot of factors. Almost every day we were bused to the location of the tour (sometimes only 10 to 15 minutes on the bus - sometimes more), we toured with our guide - usually had a little free time, then were bused back to the ship -- and almost always the ship was at a different location than when you left it. So your only choices were to go on planned tours or stay on ship and sail to wherever the ship stopped to pick up the passengers on the tours. The excursions were wonderful and it was very nice not to have to plan things on our own, and most days you had the choice of two different excursions. The local guides for the tours were very good.

I want to point out that I am saying all of the above in a very positive manner, however, as someone who has done many ocean cruises, it was just not as I originally thought. I had thought we would start up with the guides to get a feel for the towns, then we would leave the group to spend time on our own and get back on the ship at our leisure. That really was not possible, except maybe in one instance. At the end of each tour, most guides did give you a little bit of free time before boarding the buses.

I felt river cruising was very regimented, and I would have liked a little more time to do things on our own. However, we did feel like this was a great way to see Europe. We felt very well taken care by AMA, and had very little to worry about getting from point A to B. We are not world travelers and would not be someone to take a train throughout Europe on our own. So this was a good choice of travel for us.

The scenery is beautiful, food was amazing, and crew was wonderful. It is a different experience and I am glad to have done it at least once.