Minnesota Rookie

RocketMan:

Since you weren't there, of course, you had no way either of judging the credibility of the steward, nor of my ability to do so. I made it plain in my contribution that it was a matter of judging the steward's credibility whom we had come to know over longer than several weeks. The reasons I made that plain was that I knew that there was a chance that he could be playing me to increase his gratuity. I think Norwegian low-balls on initial price and then pads their profits significantly in two ways: by taking what they call gratuities for the bottom line, and by excessively charging for excursions, etc. I am a pretty good judge of character and of situation given my life and experiences as well as my expertise. What you think is irrelevant to me.

This topic got so long that I confess I didn't read all of the contributions, so I hope that I am not duplicating any of the former posts. But we had an interesting experience on an April 2023 cruise (for obvious reasons told below I don't want to identify it any more than that) with Norwegian this year. After having made something of a relationship with our room steward over the time I asked him on the last day whether he got a part of the huge tip package that we paid to Norwegian. He was very reluctant to answer and said that the staff had been told quite plainly by Norwegian that they would be fired if they revealed this information to customers. But because the steward trusted me a bit perhaps, he finally told me that no, they don't get any part of it. I found him credible and his reluctant answer believable. We tipped him personally and took a significant amount off our Norwegian gratuities. I believe it is possible, or even likely (without much more evidence than that single occasion), that Norwegian is actually using the so-called "gratuities" to pad their profit margin, not compensate their staff.  

Thanks Bobkli19 and boilermaker330! (Boilermaker--we are on the same cruise as you!) These are certainly solid options. Now we have to figure out how we are going to choose! We are also looking at a group shuttle. Our hotel looks like it is only about 2 blocks from the Termini, if I am reading the map correctly so we can easily walk from there.

Wow! You guys are great! I can't thank you enough for all the incredible information. My wife and I will pour over all of the answers and try to decide what seems best for us. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!

My wife and I are taking a Transatlantic Cruise from NY to Rome in April, our first Transatlantic. We then have a day on our own and then a land tour starting on the following day from Rome. So we need to get from Civitavecchia to a hotel downtown to stay over for an extra day to start the land tour the next day. Being elderly, and never having been in Rome, not speaking the language, and knowing nothing about anything, we are a bit terrified about how to get from the ship to whatever hotel in Rome that the land tour will be starting in (we hope to find out the right hotel for the start of the land tour as soon as possible). We thought that either the cruise line (Norwegian) or the land tour (Trafalgar) would give us some help, but nada from either, since we don't fit into their usual routine of going to or coming from the airport immediately before or immediately after the experiences. Anyone know the way from the port to the city and can give us some help to get there? Thanks! 

So I now not only pay for the ship and the cruise, but I have to hire and pay the staff as well? I think Norwegian has really made a bad promotional move in this case. I intend to significantly reduce my gratuities once I get onboard--something I have never done before--as a protest, and we simply won't ever take another Norwegian cruise. We've had enough of these cruise lines, and Norwegian is the straw that breaks the camel's back for us, nickel and diming (hundreds and thousands) their customers to death in pursuit of ever larger profits. 

Thanks Zach. That is what I was led to believe this morning! OK, if we connect in Munich we will try to leave enough time to jump through the hoops. 

Sorry to ask a question that has probably been asked a dozen times. I thought I knew the answer until this morning. We will be taking the Norwegian Breakaway on a Transatlantic from NY to Rome in May. We have to fly back from Rome, and one of our possible connections would be in Munich. Having missed our flight in Munich once in the past due to United flying in three hours late, I want to be extra cautious with making our plans coming home. Nothing spoils a trip like missing a connecting flight. I thought because we were leaving a Schengen country in Italy and coming into Germany which is also a Schengen country, we wouldn't have to go through immigration and passport. But this morning I found something which seemed to say that if you are either coming in from a non-Schengen country (we aren't) or leaving Germany for a non-Schengen country (we are in this case, headed back to the U.S.) you have to go through immigration and passport in Germany. Do I need to leave extra time in the connection to do all that? Can anyone help in giving some expert advice on the topic. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Thanks Kat. Sorry for the misplacing of the thread!

Hey all, We are actually tentatively thinking about doing something really crazy in 2022--cruising back from Rome to one of the Florida ports so we can 1) avoid that awful air flight back, and 2) get a cruise in along with a land tour of Italy and 3) see some of the farther western places  (perhaps Morocco? Gibraltar? Canary Islands?) that wouldn't normally be on a Rome-Rome roundtrip. But here is what I am wondering: there are generally five or six days of sea cruising while crossing the Atlantic and I am not real good for just sitting around and staring at the sea and sky. We are too old to do much pool activities or bar activities so...what have you who have done a Transatlantic found to do for the long sea days when there are no stops and excursions? Will I end up going crazy from doing too much reading and playing board games? Thanks for any counsel or suggestions!

We never made it on the cruise which we had looked so forward to, so I can't rate Viking accommodations. I am writing this review based on the terrible experience we went through after booking the cruise and paying the deposit to Viking. We have cruised over 2/3 of the world (the Americas and Europe) but never had an experience anything like what we had with Viking. What we learned about Viking may help others approach Viking with more realistic expectations of what they might experience. We thought that Viking would be a cruise line which went out of its way to help their customers. What we found out is that Viking is a money-making machine, and extremely rigid, and they will not budge an inch to help customers (unless it involves paying Viking more fees and charges--Viking has alot of additional fees and charges in their "all inclusive" fees! It pays to read their contract carefully! They don't "nickel and dime" you, they hundred- and thousand-dollar you!). We had booked a land tour with another company for just before our cruise, and expected to go right from our land tour to our cruise. So far, so good. We bought air arrangements from Viking (not realizing at the time that Viking will give you only one choice of flight unless you begin to pay the extra fees for other choices. Beware--the extra fees, we were told by an independent travel agent, will usually add up to about $300/person extra if you can't use the one flight they will give you.). When we realized that we would receive only one choice of flight, it focused attention on how important that selection would be, so we called our "Viking Travel Agent" twice and left messages asking him to get back to us to discuss the air arrangements. Over several weeks he never returned either call. We can only assume that once they have your booking and your deposit, they are done with working with the customer. Then we got our third shock. The air arrangements specify that Viking will offer transport services from the airport to the port for any one who buys air. But Viking informed us that they would not transport us from the airport to the port because we were also taking another tour beforehand. I thought he must surely be mistaken, but after checking with Viking Customer service I received the same answer. Despite paying for the transport, they would not transport us, due to the other tour being involved. We offered to be at the airport anywhere, at any time they specified, but they refused. We were told that even if we stood in the line at the Viking bus at the airport to go to the port we would be turned away. Viking, of course, blamed it on the policy of "the independent contractor" who does the transport. Adding all this to the difficulties of traveling internationally in the pandemic, we finally decided that we simply couldn't risk putting our tour and our lives in the hands of Viking Cruises. We got our full refunds back from both of the other places which we had placed deposits down a few days before...but Viking policy was that they would gouge the customer $100/person to cancel, even in the midst of the pandemic. They were the only company of the three to do so. And to add insult to injury, while Viking is more than glad to take your booking and money by email or phone, Viking makes you write a handwritten letter and send it snail mail to cancel. Just our experience shared so you know what to expect.

My wife and I thought it might be nice to escape cold weather this coming January and take a Caribbean cruise. We'd be flying out of Denver. But after looking exhaustively (and exhaustedly!) at flights to Miami, Ft. Lauderdale or Tampa, what we discovered is that...we can't get there in time! All the flights we have access to appear to land in both cities too late to get to a 4:00 PM cruise departure! We were absolutely baffled! We took a Caribbean Cruise many years ago, flying out of Minnesota, and didn't recall having any problems at all getting there on time, but we only lost one hour on that trip, we lose two on this one which contributes to the challenge. How does one get to the port cities in Florida from the Mountain Time Zone in time for cruising? Is it necessary to go a day early and stay over in an expensive hotel? Or do the airlines add more flights as winter approaches so that we will have more possibilities? Anyone with some insight? Thanks!

Minnesota Rookie (now Colorado almost-rookie)