sinclaj

Hi Kim, 

So glad you were able to cruise.  I’m very interested to see how you adapted from your usual cruising activities.  Merry Christmas.  I always love your reviews

Judy

Hi Kim,

I’m another one who reads all of your reviews but rarely comments. I love them!!   I have taken a couple of excursions I read about on your reviews and absolutely love hearing about your family and watching Sakari grow.  I even heard of what a puddle jumper is from you and my grandson is just loving using it this summer in our pool. 

Wishing you success in your surgery and physical therapy.  Judy

Speaking from experience, on our first ever cruise, we flew Toronto to Vancouver on air canada, the day of the cruise....don’t do it. 

We we had plenty of time but...air Canada has several flights so they sometimes cancel one and consolidate those people on one of the other ones.  That happened to us.  They actually put us on an earlier flight...great!  But...our luggage didn’t make it and we didn’t get it until Ketchikan.  

Next alaska cruise we flew in a few days ahead and did a whistler mountaineer trip and spent a couple days there pre cruise.  I also travel with really good carry on now...nothing like being in Alaska in capris and sandals to teach about smart packing.  

Jmae2002,

I can state with absolute certainty that I did that two weeks ago on the Jewel. They really don't care whether you buy OBC or just charge it to your onboard account. The fact is, that generally, you play in the casino with cash, and they are happy to provide you with cash.

I had pre-purchased obc (be sure to print out your confirmations for each purchase just in case - although I had no problems and by day two, all my purchases showed).

When I wanted cash, I went to the casino cashier with my sign and sale card and asked for $XXX.XX to be charged to my account. She told me that there was a 3% charge and I said I was aware. They have you sign in a couple of places and give you a slip for your records and then ask how you want the cash. Then they say "good luck". That's it. One time I did stay and play a little. The other time I just took my cash and left. It shows up on your account as $XXX.XX - casino and then $XX.XX transaction fee as a separate charge.

It helped out a lot with the Can- US exchange rate for us.

Hope this helps.

Judy

Thanks for your reply. I just checked and mine shows up. I have printed out what I have, though too.

Thanks so much for posting this. I have bought on board credit for the first time, also due to the favourable exchange with the Canadian dollar, for our cruise in a couple of weeks. Because of your posting, I have printed out my credit card statements showing the amounts charged. I have bought the credit at different times, so I have a few statements.

One question. Before you left, did you see all of your onboard credit listed on your vacation summary under "gifts and more"?

Thanks for the heads up on this.

Judy

Hi Helen Haywood,

I'm so glad you did post this because I would have been very scared/concerned if it had happened to me, and they had split up my husband and I. He is not a well-versed traveller and depends on me to get where he needs to, with the paperwork he needs. Now that I know it is a possibility, I would be able to prepare/handle it much better. You have done us a service.

Judy

Hi Gordonchick. This may or may not help but I recently flew (March) the opposite arrangement, where I booked with WestJet but it was an American Airlines flight. Since I booked through WestJet, they wouldn't let me book a specific seat. So I went to the AA site and was able to use my locator number and book my seats on that site.

Perhaps you can do the reverse and book through the WestJet site.

I now am pretty adamant about having booked seats since, a year before, United and Air Canada did not honour our reservations made almost a year ahead and had over-booked their flights. Since we didn't have assigned seats (or for some other reason), we were the ones with no seats.

On the other hand, one of WestJet's "promises" is that they don't overbook flights, so seat or no seat assignment, you should be just fine.

Hope this helps.

Judy

Thanks so much for your review. I get to try it in a few weeks. Can't wait.

Thank you so much for all this information. It sure answers some of the questions I have about the Getaway. I appreciate the time you took to provide this.

Many of us in Ontario, Canada have that week as well.

Judy

Once again, I'm thoroughly enjoying your review. You provide such good information of your excursions, it really helps in planning what we'd like to do. Your daughter is just too adorable.

Thanks again

Judy

Med. cruise, summer of 2011(I think) from Barcelona, on the Epic. My daughter and I took all ship excursions for the ports in Italy. We loved how knowledgeable the tour guides were, all the wonderful places we got to see and even the great lunches that were included.

The only bad part was that many of the tour guests did not speak English, so that when the tour guide was speaking English on the bus, they loudly conversed among themselves, making it hard to hear what was being said. Also, they seemed to think that at a stop, they should rush from the back of the bus to get off first, so they blocked everyone in the front seats until they emptied out.

I was really impressed with the tours provided by NCL, though.

Unfortunately this seems to be a trend with all the new big ships. I was on the Royal Princess last year and all they had was a thermal suite and it was limited to 40 guests. This is why I don't book these new mega ships. I happen to love the Sun; too bad the Sun is only doing 10 and 11 day cruises now. I won't book the Getaway or the Epic due to no complimentary steam room. BTW, they also limit perks on these ships. It's been a while since I checked but my "consultant" told me that they don't have Latitudes parties on the Epic and that I would not get the free dinner for two in the Bistro (that I get as a Platinum member of Latitudes) either. I just came off the Vision of the Seas and while this is an older ship with a free steam room and sauna there was no shampoo in the stateroom, no ice in the stateroom, no chocolate on the pillow, and no fridge in the stateroom. Also there was lobster on the menu for a charge in the main dining room on formal night. It all seems so petty. I would rather pay more and have a better cruise experience.

I think your "consultant" may be in error. There is still a latitude party on those bigger ships, on cruises of 7 days, but only for silver and above. The dinner for two is available on all the ships for Platinum members.

However, checking in early does guarantee it.

 

Airlines in Canada are required to bump the last people to checkin; not people without seat assignments; not people with status. They've been fined a few times over this very issue.

Wow, I wished I'd known that. We were, in fact, at the front of the line to check-in after our cruise. We had been at the airport several hours before our flight and were lined up before they opened the check-in. They would not give three of our party seat numbers while the other three of us did get seat assignments. When asked why - they just said we'd get them at the gate. All the people behind us had not checked in either, because there was a separate line for those who had completed the on-line check-in. They sure would not tell us what was going on or why we couldn't get seats.

I have to admit that I was more than naïve in booking these flights. I rather panicked when I saw the flights go up and up for the March Break period for the following year, and the flights were not cheap. We paid over $800.00 round trip each person for our flights. However, we could not get access to the seat maps and even the 24 hour before flight check-in was denied.

However, lesson learned. I will now only book direct with the airlines and make sure I have a seat selected when I book and pay.

It was an education in finding out that a ticket purchased doesn't necessarily guarantee a seat on the plane.

We had a bad experience booking Air Canada through Cheap-0. We booked almost a year in advance and were unable to book seats since it was through a third party. Upon arriving for our flight, 3 of our six people were assigned seats. The other three were to be assigned at the gate. Well, only 2 of them got on and the other one ended up shuffled all over the place. Just because you pay in full for a flight, it doesn't guarantee you'll get on it. They claim they overbook as a matter of course and in my mind, I think because we were the ones that booked through Cheap0 we were the ones SOL. Certainly since we booked almost 11 months ahead, we were not the last ones to purchase our tickets.

I was enjoying your review until I read about you "adjusting" the DSC. That's not OK.

Wow! That was great. Thanks so much for posting it. We have to wait until next spring to try it out for ourselves but love reading reviews. This video was really good.

Judy

We have two cruises booked and have not received this e-mail either.

However, we curiously received a "Welcome Back" e-mail yesterday. But our last cruise was in March. ????

I don't do a lot of posting, but I do a lot of reading. I am a non-smoker, who has been married for 38 years to a smoker. He wishes he didn't smoke. I wish he didn't smoke. Our adult children who are also non-smokers, wish he didn't smoke.

It is a very difficult addiction to stop. However, living with a smoker - who is very considerate, by the way, I do have empathy for those who have that addiction.

We are platinum on NCL and have two cruises booked. With retirement happening in another year, we are hoping to cruise more often and not at the peak times we've had to do it in the past.

We always book a balcony so that he can have a smoke there if he wishes. He also goes up to the pool deck on the smoking side to have a smoke as well. It will be a decision to make whether or not to choose cruising as our first choice in holidays.

I am ever hopeful that he will kick this addiction, but also will be unhappy if the ban on smoking on the balcony does extend to NCL. Either way, we shall survive. There is no need to be vicious on either side.

I love reading your reviews. In March we went to Mr. Sanchos in Cozumel based on your pictures and review of it in one of your other cruises. We loved it too.

We're going on your Getaway cruise next March and I'm looking forward to trying some of your port visits.

Thanks for all the information. You have a wonderful family and that little girl of your is very photogenic. I admire your "Zen" attitude.

Judy

I know better than to say "never" because those are the types of things that inevitably you need to use the next time. But I'd sure want it to be a direct rather than a connecting United flight.

I used the form available on their website. After a few weeks, they replied that I wasn't entitled to anything since the tickets were used.

I could have followed it up further, but they make it so inconvenient in not being able to reply to their e-mail, I'd have to find another avenue to make my request again, so I dropped it.

I know these things happen all the time, but it was a first for me. I'm just so glad that we flew in the day before. Otherwise we would have missed our cruise.

Good luck!!!

We experience our first plane change in Chicago this past March with United. It was horrible. We had a 57 minute change which would have been easily do-able, except our plane was delayed an hour leaving Toronto since the baggage handlers were on a "slow-down", so our connection left. We were put on one 3 hours later which had delays continually for another 3 hours and didn't guarantee us seats. One of the six of us travelling, almost didn't get on at all (and on the way home, didn't get on). 3 or 4 gate changes later and then boarding and then de-planning (something about not being able to gas up/ something about oxygen) and finally 6 hours late, we arrived at our final destination.

Perhaps United is alright for a non-stop flight -- but they won't be my choice for a connection. They also refused any type of compensation.

The instructions that I've seen over the years about the self debark is that you can do it anytime during the morning. Indeed we've done it very early and we've done it much later -- depending on our flight. The biggest downside is the wait for elevators that aren't full of people with their suitcases so that we don't have to shlep our suitcases down the stairs.