Hydrokitty

We was to the mass on Palm Sunday and He ask for money to pay for his cruise fare and gratuities.

Holy Cow....that is bizarre....I know when a priest performs a wedding, baptism or funeral there is a suggested monetary gift (but it's not required) but usually when a Priest is asked to provide services on a cruise ship he is provided with a cabin and meals and no collection is taken nor are "tips" solicited.....it's not like he's part of the crew after all....

Originally we was to a beach shorex with Celebrity, but this was cancelled because of rain in the morning. Later the rain stops so we decided to do a self walking tour to the Historical Church. Everything was closed because a holiday (next day of elections). the people is friendly but the city is abandoned, to many trash in the streets, and our goal the Church is destroyed and also abandoned no signs of reconstruction. As the church you can see also many abandoned buildings..

Hi gerelmx....it was such a delight to meet you and your wife at lunch on the Eclipse....first time I've met anyone from CC! And, I agree about Antingua....the only thing really good about Antigua was Hemingway's restaurant! Great food, service and atmosphere and we were on the second floor so street was below us. We were awakened at 7:30 a.m. by a loud speaker and parade that continued all day long, apparently in celebration of a political victory...the shopping area is not very pleasant....very few places to sit in the shade.....vendors hawking trips are everywhere....and unless you go on a shore excursion it's not worth leaving the ship for. As for St. Maarten and St. Lucia we get off the ship to have lunch at our favorite restaurants: Blue Bitch in St. Maarten and Pink Papaya in St. Lucia.

Personal experience: We were on the Infinity Panama Canal cruise with friends from Quebec. He was the retired Minister of Finance for the Province and we had gone on a shore X that day. We met up for dinner and neither my DH or I or HIS DW noticed that he was still wearing his Bermuda shorts! He was very quietly and discreetly reminded that shorts were not allowed at dinner and would he please go change, which of course he did and we all had a good laugh about it.

I would go to Seattle page under ports and ask someone who lives in Seattle and travels to Vancouver fairly frequently what your chances are. To me, it sounds awfully tight.

"if you run into the Captain

 

don't ask "who's driving the ship?""

OR "Who's driving the boat?"

When I was in college in NYC I went on a blind date with a sailor...his ship was in port at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and he took me to see it. As we approached the Independence I said "Wow, that's a big boat" and then compounded it by walking into a guy in a white suit....when he said "Excuse me" I smiled and said "That's ok".....turns out he was the Captain! My date said to me, "It's a good thing you're a blonde "!.... but I never saw that guy again!! :D

This is one of the funniest threads I've seen in a long time.....it has been total enjoyment...thank you for the laughs and the education....who knew what a "budgie smuggler" was other than someone stealing a parakeet! :D

Don't call it a boat, especially when speaking to the captain. [emoji925][emoji924][emoji568]⚓️⚓️

 

 

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WOW.....that's really looking for trouble!!!! :D

So true, and it is really a shame.

Several years ago we took a sightseeing excursion from St. Thomas that listed an age restriction of 80.

A member of our party who wanted to come along was over 80, and there was nothing in the description to indicate that the tour would be at all strenuous or challenging in any way.

So I went down to Shore Excursions and told them that he would be willing to sign a liability waiver if they would let him take the excursion. They said they needed to contact the vendor and would let us know.

 

They called us a few hours later to say it would be fine for him to go, and he never needed to sign any waiver.

It turned out to be a very easy, scenic excursion (boat ride + land tour) where age made no difference at all.

The most "challenging" thing about it was that people needed to be able to climb up 3 steps to get into the sightseeing vehicle for the land tour.

 

Granted it would have been unsuitable for anyone using a wheelchair or walker, but simply because there was no place on the vehicle to store it.

 

 

When we returned to the ship, I went back to Shore Excursions to let them know that the age limit on that tour was unnecessary and misleading because it was a very easy tour; in fact one of the most appropriate for elderly people.

Furthermore, they were losing sales because many older passengers who would really enjoy that tour were not purchasing it due to the age restriction.

 

The agent politely thanked me for letting them know, and tried to pacify me by assuring me that they would remove the age limit from their tour description.

 

A few years later, we were on another cruise that stopped in St. Thomas, so I looked through the tour brochure.

The same tour was still being offered, and yes, it still had the 80 age limit on the description! :(

This sounds exactly how my "complaint/suggestion" was handled. It's too bad that they don't take guests with constructive criticism more seriously

I agree complete garbage. I couldn't make a payment today online and also trying to buy room decorations for our anniversary and can't get on cruise planner.

That's odd....I found the only thing that worked was pay the balance for your cruise now. :mad:

Go to MDR on formal night wearing bathing trunks and flip flops..start screaming and yelling at the maitre d when he refuses to let you in.....get very loud and obnoxious.... spend the rest of your cruise being pointed out to everyone as "the guy on facebook".

Is this like merging a cold with a sore back?

Much worse!!!! I'm leaving on X next Saturday and printed my dox and luggage tags last night....Thank God because today they're all gone!!! Well not gone really just unavailable to me. I went to RCI and redid all of my info, including changing my password and everything else they asked and when I was done I had a nice blue square telling me that I am booked on Allure in July, 2019 but I cannot access that and my past RCI cruise is not listed. The only good news is that apparently X has not completely demolished it's current site because I was later able to bring up my cruise next week but without any information. Like I posted earlier.....this was a bad idea on more levels than I can count!!!!

lol!

Much worse!!!! I'm leaving on X next Saturday and printed my dox and luggage tags last night....Thank God because today they're all gone!!! Well not gone really just unavailable to me. I went to RCI and redid all of my info, including changing my password and everything else they asked and when I was done I had a nice blue square telling me that I am booked on Allure in July, 2019 but I cannot access that and my past RCI cruise is not listed. The only good news is that apparently X has not completely demolished it's current site because I was later able to bring up my cruise next week but without any information. Like I posted earlier.....this was a bad idea on more levels than I can count!!!!

Yikes! We've been very happy with almost all the ship excursions we've taken across many different lines. There were a couple that were a complete bust, one on RCCL and one on Princess and we've complained while still onboard and had the charges removed. On our ship's tour in Curacao late last year, the tour was good just not as explained. I still feel we had gotten our money's worth so cut the tour short and headed back to the ship without any further complaints. It was not described as a walking tour for the last half and it was stifling hot out ... just couldn't do it. The bus driver was kind enough to take a group of us back to the ship after the bus portion of the tour was supposed to be complete. Like I mentioned, the tour was good and we did end up getting our money's worth ... just hadn't realized we were going to be dropped off in town for a walking tour and then making our own way back to the ship. Half of us ended up taking the bus back to the pier and tipped the driver accordingly as she was off duty!

Well done.....it was good of the driver to bring you back and it was very good of you to appreciate it since none of this was really anybody's fault. I have found some of the shore x descriptions to be occasionally misleading and I have spoken to them about this on our last cruise. There are tours we have taken that were labeled strenuous and were moderate at best and there were others labeled moderate that were very strenuous. This results in minimally handicapped people (like me) choosing excursions that they shouldn't have and conversely missing excursions that could have enjoyed.

Thanks for the warning...

As soon as we can, we will download, print and screen shot everything we have for preservation...including Cap Club and Crown Anchor points, in advance of the inevitable mess ups, sytemic gremlins etc...

 

Why not fix what they have before trying the next level of technology?

Good idea and a good question!!!

I think the concept is a good one. It's the execution that could be problematic. Ultimately I think the objective is to wind up with a single site for at least RCL and X with maybe Azamara down the road. It will be a huge project and I for one am encouraged by the range of job postings on the RCCL corporate site.

I have no problem with the concept......the problem as you said is the execution....

Oh this sounds like a bad idea on so many levels.....with all the problems RCI had with "updating X web site to make it easier to use" what makes them think that merging passengers from two separate cruise lines into ONE web site would be a good idea? :evilsmile::evilsmile::evilsmile::evilsmile::evilsmile:

sorry only intended 1 evil smile!

I would write a letter to Celebrity HQ....I am very surprised that shore X did not refund your full payment right then and there. We had a problem with a shore X on one of our cruises and they refunded our payment on the ship.

May 18...

We did basically the same itinerary except for Jelling, which was our first stop. We were on a B2B with the Baltic Caps so we did go to Copenhagen (loved it) but we sailed from Southampton. I don't remember tendering in Geiranger but there was another large ship in port that did. We were the last cruise of the season to Norway so it wasn't too crowded and the weather was gorgeous for sightseeing, although we had a bit of rain. I think out of all the places we have been, Norway is the most beautiful place I've seen.

I figured that was her...when did you go that there was that much snow? We were there in August and there was snow on the mountains but not like this. I would have been curled in a ball weeping....which isn't easy in a Twizy! :D

It's not my favorite place for a sailing excursion. It always seems expensive and I don't find the sights around St Maarten all that interesting. Snorkeling has always been poor. I think you can find better values in other ports. On the plus side, you can walk to the sailboat.

I agree with bigbeergut about sights in St. Maarten....BUT I love St. Maarten for shopping! Everything is (or was before hurricane, I'll let you know April 1 when I'm back) within walking distance of ship....there's more shops than you can see in a day, prices are fair and there are some great restaurants on the beach....our favorite is the Blue Bitch....but there's so many others. I would do the catamaran on one of the other islands where sights are prettier and snorkeling is better.

Loved your picture Joe.....I would have had a stroke!!!

Not going to Stavenger either. The ports are Dublin, Bergen, Skjolden, Geiranger, Alesund, Lerwick, Dublin. (Lerwick is the Shetland Islands, Scotland).

I guess our choices in Geiranger will be a fjords cruise or Mt. Dalsnibba. Does the mountain view require much walking? Did you do both of these trips independently or on ship excursions?

We did the fjord cruise in Geiranger and it was wonderful. I cannot address Mt. Dalsnibba since I have a terrible fear of winding mountain roads so we didn't do that one. Look on the shore excursions and read the description. If it says strenuous then you might have to do some walking. I booked the fjord trip on my own because it was right next to the ship and we wanted a later cruise than the X excursion, which was early in the morning. For the Mt. Dalsnibba, personally, I would go with X ....I've never had a bad shore excursion with them and you don't have to worry if you're late getting back to the ship. But if you had to choose if Geiranger is the only fjord trip offered on your cruise take it....it's beautiful, the ship is very comfortable and has a bathroom, and the falls are fantastic!

Doesn't matte,r. The may 20 departure does not stop at Flam.

Unfortunately, you are correct. We were on the B2B with Scandinavia and Baltic Caps followed by Norway fjords out of Southampton, UK. Too bad but you'll still get to see the most beautiful scenery anywhere.....most ports in Norway are very close to the city and you will be able to walk from ship to fjord cruises, restaurants and shopping easily. Do take a fjord cruise in either Geiranger or Stavenger....or both.

I was on this cruise last year on the Eclipse....I think there was only one but they're always on sea days, so look at your itinerary and you can figure out which night it will be. FYI evening chic is anything that does not include blue jeans, tee shirts or shorts. If you bring a pair of black jeans and a lacy or gauzy type top you'll be fine. Gentlemen do not need suits, although they should certainly feel comfortable if they wear one. Mine wears dress slacks with a long sleeve button shirt.....no tie...no jacket. It's a fantastic cruise and the waterfalls are exquisite. Not to be missed: the Flam RR and a boat ride in either Stavenger or Geiringer. If you're a music lover, then add in the Grieg home.

s

About to find out now early is too early for a flight from Ft Lauderdale. We disembark Silhouette from a suite on Sunday for a 10:20 flight. Concierge says no problem. I'll post with our experience, although I know not everyone will have the same results.

Weather in the Northeast much improved this morning. but expect some delays due to most airports being closed yesterday.