sandyss

Thanks for checking on that for me.

Thanks for all the good information. We sail on the Westerdam in June.

Could you possibly check to see if there are other internet packages available? There used to be the Social, Enhanced, and Premier packages, priced by the week, rather than a daily rate.

Thanks so much.

There are lots of places to visit in Haines:

Kroschel Films Wildlife Center

Jikaat Kwaan Heritage Center

View bald eagles along the Haines Highway

Fort William H.Seward Historic District and Sculpture Garden (near the port)

If you rent a car, you can visit the first 3 places on your own, plus you can drive into the Yukon (passport needed if you enter Canada). You need to reserve ahead for the Wildlife Center.

Thanks for all the advice. We will try the Rotterdam.

How do the cabins compare? We are looking at ocean view cabins on both. Although, we might decide on a balcony cabin if we book the Zuiderdam.

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I made the mistake of booking a cruise with the Big Box Store online. I checked the Ts and Cs, and the normal cancellation penalties were there. Nowhere was it mentioned that I was getting a non refundable fare. A couple months later, when there was a sale with perks, I called to change the fare. Only then did I find out that we had a non refundable fare. The Big Box Store would not budge on the pricing.

Beware when booking through the Big Box Store. I will never book a cruise through them again.

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Which ship do you recommend for a northern crossing. Both have very interesting, but similar, itineraries. Both ships have ports in Iceland and Greenland. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

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What visa do you need For Sri Lanka? Can you get it prior or on arrival.

You were told to get transit visa is ahead by celebrity.

Thank you. That's the answer that I was hoping for.

Does anyone have recent experience arriving at the port of Colombo, Sri Lanka?

Does immigration take place on the ship or in a port building? (We all have our Transit evisas.)

How much time should we allow to get through immigration?

Does anyone have recent experience arriving at the port of Colombo, Sri Lanka?

Does immigration take place on the ship or in a port building? (We all have our Transit evisas.)

How much time should we allow to get through immigration?

Thanks so much for posting the great videos. Great timing for us. We will be taking the same cruise - in the opposite direction.

We were able to book it without a cruise tour.

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Per our India tour guide:

"In mumbai there is nearly 10 counters for Evisa , so I am happy they can get biometric quick and it take only 3 minuets per person".

From what I have read, though, the evisa is only good for 2 entries into India. Our cruise has 3 ports.

The email says you have to prepay before 2nd Jan or pay the new rates onboard. I assume future bookings with pre paid gratuities included will stay the same even though not fully paid yet. No change to the 18% gratuity on drinks etc.

Thanks. We will pay before 2 January.

Just had an email from Celebrity with 'updated ' gratuity rates effective on all sailings after Jan 2nd. All daily rates are increasing by $1 a day. This doesn't affect any prepaid gratuities and of course they say you can pay up now to avoid the increase.

Thanks for the heads-up. I haven't received that email yet. Is there a cut-off date for prepaying the gratuities - or any time before the cruise?

Does anyone know if the classic non-alcohol package is discounted?

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I have copied information from the India e-visa site below - https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html

• Double entry is permitted on e-Tourist Visa and e-Business Visa.
  
• e-Visa is valid for entry through 24 designated Airports (i.e. Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Chandigarh,Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum & Varanasi) and 3 designated seaports (i.e. Cochin, Goa, Mangalore). However, the foreigner can take exit from any of the authorized Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) in India.
  

The entry at the 3 Ports is very new (Mumbai Port is not yet included), and the officers on the Constellation may not be familiar with this yet.

You need to make sure that the Documentation Officer on board the Constellation will allow you to board with the e-visa. That is the person that you need to contact.

Have you contacted Celebrity? They should be able to give you the contact information for the Constellation's Documentation Officer, who might possibly be able to help you.

Good luck.

You are talking about a non-refundable price for a particular cruise. The 90 - 120 days out refers to a refundable deposit on a cruise which must be cancelled no later than the 90 - 120 days from sailing to be fully refundable. As a previous poster has noted, the amount of the deposit refunded goes down the closer to departure.

You are absolutely correct. I learned this the hard way. I did not realize that there were fares that were non-refundable, with the exception of fares booked very close to sailing.

I made the reservation for our Alaska cruise (next June) with the well-known big box store. I read the Ts and Cs carefully (standard cancellation policy), and did not realize that I had booked a "snap" fare that was entirely non-refundable and not mentioned in their Ts and Cs or anywhere else on their booking page. When I called to take advantage of a sale with included drink package a couple of months after booking, I was told that I could not change to that since I had a non-refundable fare. I would lose my deposit, which would negate any savings.

Lessons learned. 1) Be careful to not book non-refundable fares. 2) Do not book cruises with the Big Box store.

I was told to hit the princess website for equivalent flights and get an idea what was offered. They do let you see it all.

 

that let me compare easily. I pretty much knew the flights I was interested in so when I called, it didn't take long.

 

HAL doesn't have that availability to see potential flights for some reason.

Thanks Kazu. That explains why I was unable to access a website with potential flights. I've always been able to check flights with Celebrity - and compare the cost with a direct booking with the airline - before making a decision, and was hoping that I could do the same with HA.

I've never used FlightEase. Can you just look at flights online, or do you have to book through your TA? (I am a shopper, and I like to compare costs, so I would like to be able to see the possibilities online before calling my TA.) Is there a website that I can go to?

I looked at my reservation and it does state that you would lose your deposit from 120-91 days prior to departure. Now this is for a 28 day cruise. From 90-75 you would lose 60%. Of course with the non refundable deposit pricing, you don't get this back. My cruise is to Alaska, so my deposit would be lost if I cancel 75-57 days before departure.

Does that mean that the deposit is refundable up to 120 days prior to departure, even though it is called a non-refundable deposit?

I am confused about the non-refundable fares. When I look at the cancellation information on the HAL website, it shows that the deposit is non-refundable starting at 120 days out. Does that mean that I could cancel without penalty 5 months before the cruise date?

We are currently looking at a cruise in July 2019, but there is no way that we would accept a completely non-refundable fare for a cruise that far out.

We toured with Travel Israel - http://www.travelisrael.co.il/ - with Udi. We had a small group of 6 people and we were able to design our own tour, since we had been to Israel previously. Udi was fantastic, and very easy to work with. We had 2 wonderful tours with him out of Ashdod. Highly recommended.