albertb

5 hours ago, 8mma said:

Does anyone know if Retreat guests are still escorted off the ship first when in Port?  That was a perk I always enjoyed and makes planning excursions easier.

We have a trip coming up and it would help to have that information.  Thanks in advance!

It is still happening on our current Apex cruise.

2 hours ago, the penguins said:

Virgin Atlantic is owned by Delta.

49% Delta 51% Virgin Group

On our recent Edge cruise in the Med the entertainment staff stated from the outset that there would be no prizes. This was stated to be a company policy, and they implied it was now an industry norm. They were upbeat about it and suggested there was no longer any point cheating!

On our recent Edge cruise in the Med there was no Elite priority tendering at the two tender ports. We asked, they checked and it was confirmed - no Elite priority. At Sorento they did not go to open tendering until 1.45pm. We were told that about 50% of pax were “ new cruisers, or new to Celebrity “. I do not know what proportion of the rest were Elite. The CC rep was invisible.

Riviera Travel is no longer "family owned". Since 2017 it has been owned by Silverfleet Capital, a private equity company.

We did this on Quest, 2019. I shot video from Deck 10 Hope the link works:

The show was longer than the video. We are looking at the "back" of the bridge, i.e. not the side with the date on. They famously got it wrong that year anyway! 

4 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

In Britain they fired their expert because of his inaccurate and over the top forcasts. 

Which expert are you referring to? One member of the advisory committee had to stand down because he broke the lockdown rules, which he had called for in the first place. Nobody has been fired for the accuracy of their forecasts. Perhaps they should be, but that's another question.

Paracetamol is not Aspirin. They are entirely different drugs.

We are on board too and would not call it a ship of discontent, had Az head office been more upfront and then said what was happening on the evening well in advance it would have settled a lot of qualms. 

 

The view from from the ship was good, there was a deck party planned and all the tables put out when there was a tremendous thunderstorm just before the kiddies 9pm fireworks. The staff had to work doubly hard to move tables etc but it did clear up the deck party carried on and other than a few short showers it didn’t rain again. 

 

The catamaran ran people had a great time, as did the Opera House folk we haven’t spoken to anyone’s personally who went to Taronga but rumour has it there are some discontented day people. certainly those who went for the picnic option would have got soaked in the storm. 

 

The numbers of people watching was phenomenal so getting home for them was lengthy. 

 

Super Cruise overall. 

And no more shower curtains!

It’s all happening a lot sooner than I expected too.

Are the 66 days mentioned in the numbers section split over the 4 ships ? That is some fast work if so.

We are leaving Saguenay now, the change to arrival time was made some week or so before we left, some people got notifications via their TA. As it happened the sail in being in daylight greatly enhanced the visit.

 

The announcement by the CD said that the water levels were high and this was the reason we couldn’t go into Montreal. Anyone with O transfers to or from the ship are getting the money refunded, everyone will be bused to or from Montreal airport or port for free.

 

For Those of us onboard now and staying on for the 8th May cruise there is a free Montreal On Your Own on the 8th May from Trois Rivieres, they may do the same for the 9th May for the new arrivals.

 

The water levels and force we have seen in the rivers here today convinced anyone who saw them that there could well be issues.

We are on the current Britannia Cruise. Disembarkation began approximately 11.15 and departure has been put back to 18.00. Some tours were cancelled, others put back. Ours should have been 9.00, was 12.30 instead. All purchases still being done manually.

Loved the idea of admirals hand washing Salacia!

 

 

We are currently aboard QE. No one has specifically mentioned the N word but for the first two days no condiments,milk, sugar on tables.All drinks and food served in the buffet. There was another in the laundrette asking passengers to wash clothes on the highest setting " in view of the continued increase in gastro intestinal cases" Also the cabin stewards carts have huge packets of disposable J CLoth types cloths as well as a mound of washable ones.

 

Personally I think it would have been better to tell us and emphasise the need for personal hygiene as there are still,people skipping the many bottles of hand gel.

The eVisa is only available for specified airports, not for seaports. Visiting on a cruise you need the old fashioned paper in your passport. We've just had to get ours for our upcoming cruise with two Indian ports.

Here in Cocoa Village today, what a beautiful spot!

Pity we only get into Charleston tomorrow at 10 am. It looks like a really interesting place.

Can't believe we only have two ports before we are home, where has the time gone!

We were on this leg and got off for the day in Fort Lauderdale.

 

We got very clear, info ahead of time from Cunard self disembarkation started at 7 .15 then tours then disembarking passengers by deck. We opted for early walk off in transit at 8.15 and there were already lines. One of the port staff told me their first job at 5.30 am is to switch on the computers and most had not booted up. There were only about 6 Homeland Security guards whilst we were waiting an hour and a half ours had actually just come on at 9.30 as when he tried earlier he could not use his computer. I believe later it got up to 14 staff.

 

There were separate lines for crew who all had to come off and for US and Non US. Some of the crew were standing in line for 3 and a half hours and still had to do their duties back on board. Part of the delays would have been saved if everyone had actually got an ESTA we personally know of two people who didn't, one had run out and one person had paid her TA to do it and she couldn't be found on the system. When boarding we were only asked if we had the ESTA , when we went with Celebrity in November we were told to bring paper proof and this was checked at Southampton.

 

Disembarkation was not finished until gone 1pm so that's why embarkation was delayed, when we came back at 4pm there were only 4 people embarking and it looked like 20 or so cruise cards unclaimed so maybe that's another lesson for us all!

 

Personally we have been impressed by how friendly all the staff are. Maybe it's just in the grills they aren't :-)

We will be on this cruise, as it is part of our World Voyage on QV.

 

She is scheduled to berth at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal:

 

http://www.nycruise.com/content/uploads/2014/10/NYCruise-2015-Schedulev2.pdf

 

(You may have to cut&paste)

It was because of their 1st quarter results, which were disappointing.

It was actually the P&O shareholders who agreed the Carnival merger, against the wishes of the P&O board.