njhorseman

The privately-owned water taxis and ferries in NY City can't exist with the approval of their franchise by the city government. None would be allowed to directly compete with the Staten Island Ferry. In any event I am not talking about for-profit corporations. I'm strictly addressing the politically unacceptable scenario of government-owned operations such as the Staten Island Ferry operating foreign-flagged vessels crewed by citizens of other countries. The media outlets are going to feast on stories like "Mayor Adams Plans to Replace XXX New Yorkers Who Work on the Staten island Ferry with Panamanians" Maritime unions may be weak, but not unions representing government employees. You may not be aware of the influence that union leaders in this area of the country have. My son happens to be president of a union representing several thousand government employees in this county. He has the ear of every politician from our town's council and mayor to the county executive to our state legislators to the governor. He and his union worked on their behalf to help them get elected. Believe me if his rank and file were in danger of losing their jobs to citizens of other countries those politicians would be instantaneously reminded of how many votes that would cost them the next election. BTW, the Staten Island Ferry is already free, so foreign-flagging isn't going to reduce the fare.

The bad optics and negative publicity generated by a government agency operating foreign-flagged and foreign-crewed ships could be a political nightmare costing politicians their jobs. Unions representing the ferry workers would campaign against this.

Chief, while as always I appreciate and respect your knowledge and experience, I think you may be exaggerating the likelihood of government owned and operated ferry systems such as the Staten Island Ferry and Washington State Ferries reflagging to a foreign country such as Panama. Certainly the comment about not having to pay corporate taxes to the US is not accurate because as government agencies they don't pay corporate taxes. The Circle Line sightseeing boats are a different story as they are owned and operated by a for-profit corporation, not a government agency.

You were the one who reopened the inactive thread.

Then why is it still here?

I'm curious why you reopened a thread that has been inactive for over 7 months.

I was agreeing with your assertion. I said that while we have received small credits for decreases we've never been charged for an increase in taxes/fees despite it being contractually permissible to be charged.

We've received a small downward adjustment as a matter of customer courtesy in the form of an onboard credit once or twice in years past. I can't say if it's been done recently. We've never been charged for a tax/fee increase while on board, although it would be allowed under the terms of the Guest Ticket Contract: 3. Terms of Fare (a) Items Included in Fare "...If governmental or quasi-governmental action results in any element of such taxes and fees exceeding the estimates used by Carrier for purposes of computing the quoted amount, Carrier reserves the right to pass through the extra amount."

Apollo also controlled NCL/NCLH and continued to control NCLH after Oceania and Regent were absorbed into NCLH, but the whole purpose of NCLH going public was for Apollo to get out of the business with a presumably profitable divestiture of its ownership by selling its stock in NCLH. IIRC Apollo sold the last of its stock in NCLH in 2018. FDR was never the majority shareholder of the "Apollo" that controlled NCLH, NCL and Prestige Cruise Holdings (Oceania and Regent), which was Apollo Management a private equity firm with billions in assets under its management. Perhaps @pinotlover is referring to a different "Apollo". Edit: This is the Apollo that provides staff foe Oceania. It is not the same company that controlled NCL, NCLH and Prestige Cruise Holdings: This company has been in business since 1969. FDR was not the founder. https://www.theapollogroup.com/ https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2019/07/the-apollo-group-celebrating-50-years/

In your original post you ask the question "Does anyone know what amount is supposed to be taxed?" . The answer is that the taxes and fees are not based on any fare "amount". They're not like sales taxes which are a percentage of the price of the goods or services being purchased. (The exception is on Hawaiian cruises where a General Excise Tax, similar to a sales tax is imposed by the state.) There are numerous components to the taxes and fees, all of which can vary by port, ship and the cruise line's contracts with the various ports including docking fees, harbor pilot fees, tug boat fees, seasonal taxes, port taxes imposed on a per passenger basis and others that no one but the cruise line can identify. As I said, none of these are based on your fare so on any particular sailing you could be paying a base fare of $1,000 per person for an inside cabin or $5,000 per person for a suite and the taxes and fees will be the same for each. The same itinerary sailing on different weeks can have different taxes and fees because ports sometimes have seasonal variations in what they charge.

Cruise line telephone customer service reps will not tell you because they don't know and aren't permitted to tell you. Even if a customer service rep told you something their statement isn't binding on the cruise line. The cruise line website documentation FAQs generally have reliable. information and are a far better source than customer service reps.. In the end it's the passenger's responsibility to find the answer. BTW, since two different posters asked questions about required documentation, which one are you addressing, or is it both ? The answers to the two questions are different because the itineraries are different. One is a one way cruise from Alaska to the Vancouver followed by a train ride from Vancouver to Portland. The other is a closed loop cruise departing from and ending in Seattle.

I'd consider the premium lines Oceania, Viking Ocean or Azamara, all with relatively small ships compared to the mass market lines, casual on board ambience and catering to adults.

I cited the current page on the official port website, and @Ferry_Watcher's post was just made today. I have to believe today's website and today's post over something from 2019. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3005251-seattle-pier-91-transportation/#comment-67297512 "If you use a Chauffeur type service, then you can be dropped off and picked up along the 'U' shaped drive area. This is where the taxis, buses, friends/family along with the chauffeur vehicles can access. The Uber/Lyft drivers have their own drop off area about 1/4 mile from the terminal. There is a shuttle that can transport you from the Uber/Lyft lot."

Per the port's website ride share can neither drop you off nor pick you up at Pier 91, they must use the ride share lot for both. This was also mentioned on another thread by @Ferry_Watcher, a very reliable source of information who is employed at Pier 91. https://www.portseattle.org/places/smith-cove-cruise-terminal-pier-91 "Convenient Drop Off and Pick Up Ground transportation lot located near terminal entrance providing passengers with easy access to bus parking, taxis (load/unload), airport shuttle service, and private vehicle drop off. Dedicated app-based rideshare lot for drop off or pick up. Cell phone waiting lot for convenient passenger pick up."

I believe the question and answer were about drop off and pick up at Pier 91, not at the airport.

Escambron beach is the closest beach to where the cruise ships dock Old San Juan that has relatively calm waters and from what I've been told OK snorkeling, both thanks to a reef sheltering the beach. A little further away is Isla Verde beach...bigger and IMO nicer. Stay away from the Condado beach as the water can be very rough. San Juan's a city, and pretty much any city's beaches are going to have some pollution issues.

I agree 100% with @princeton123211 . Don't do what you're suggesting. Book an Uber or car service to pick him up at JFK. If you don't want a higher end car service from Blacklane or similar you can book Carmel Limo, which should cost about the same as Uber.

I'm no expert on transportation companies in Boston, but to assist those who are it would likely be helpful to know the exact number of people needing transport, not just a statement that it's a "big group". For example some companies might have vehicles for 10 or 15 people, but not 40 or 50.

Explora Journeys are an exception for a number of reasons; (1) EJ didn't exist prior to COVID so there's no way to do a "before and after" comparison. Perhaps if EJ existed prior to COVID you'd be saying "They're as good as they always were but prices are 50% higher now". (2) It's part of the MSC group which is privately owned and is believed to not have run up the level of debt publicly traded cruise companies did during the COVID shutdown because the profitability of their cargo ship operations was sufficient to subsidize any cruise business losses. (3) As a privately owned company MSC doesn't answer to Wall St. and can take the path back to normal profitability its private owners want, not the path that investment bankers and its creditors want. The publicly traded companies are under great pressure to return to normal profitability and repay COVID debit at the rate Wall St. wants.

An EDL is perfectly acceptable for your cruise, which I assume starts and ends in Seattle. Just make sure it actually is an EDL and not a REAL ID license. Many people confuse the two. However if it is a REAL ID license she can still cruise with that plus an official birth certificate (assuming she was born in the USA). If she's a naturalized US citizen she would need her original naturalization certificate plus the drivers license. One other caveat. There are some cruise lines...typically super premium and luxury cruise lines, that require all passengers to have a valid passport even if lesser documentation is legally acceptable. One cruise line that does closed loop Alaskan cruises from Seattle that requires a passport for all passengers is Oceania. There may be others. Typically the mass market lines such as NCL, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Holland America and Celebrity do not require all passengers to have a passport. You should check your cruise line's website FAQs for their requirements.

You should post your question(s) about Africa on the Africa/Middle East Ports of Call board and you questions about the Regent Seven Seas Navigator on the Regent Seven Seas board.

Fuerte Amador is the port . The old review you read was likely written before the cruise terminal was built. Even though the cruise terminal still has work to be done before it's complete ships have been docking there for quite some time. No need to tender except in the unlikely event there are more than two ships in port that day.

Well...this is the Oceania board, not the Viking board. 😉

I agree. We enjoy good seafood and on our first Oceania cruise we couldn't wait to try the miso-glazed sea bass based on all the comments made here. It was awful. They ruin a potentially good piece of fish with a cloyingly sweet glaze. Most everything else in Red Ginger is "meh" at best.

I wasn't at all suggesting that corporate headquarters hasn't been strongly influencing what the subsidiary cruise lines are offering. That's always the case in any business. I worked as head of strategic planning at a huge company with billions in assets that was the subsidiary of an even bigger company. We didn't have a free hand in what we did. We were always controlled by the guidance of headquarters. I was merely pointing out that the senior corporate executives at NCLH were not and are not evil ogres from a corporate takeover as some mistakenly believe...they were and are Oceania executives, not NCL executives.