RenoDuck

Our upcoming London - Scotland - Norway - Iceland cruise on the Star, had a change of embarkation from Portsmouth to Southampton after most people had purchased non refundable train fare.  We were given $50 non refundable OBC per person.  They also dropped Ulvik, Norway and the Faroe Islands for environmental reasons (read fuel costs).  We also had a swap of one port in Iceland.  Many people had booked specifically for Faroe Islands and of course we were notified after final payment.  No compensation provided and now we have two extra days at sea.

Funny (not funny) thing was that there was press that NCL was pulling out of Portsmouth, but when we called to confirm the change to Southampton, we were assured we were still leaving from Portsmouth.  A week or so later, we finally received the official word.

Besides the problematic, but allowable under their contract, swapping / cancelling ports after final payment, their communication leaves a lot to be desired from timeliness and truthfulness.  This seems to becoming a regular occurrence and will make me think hard before booking future NCL cruises for more unique itineraries.

I can tell you where the Star is not going...the May trips in and out of Portsmouth have all been changed to Southampton after most people have arranged transportation to Portsmouth.  Our May 18th to Reykjavik has lost two stops and now have two additional days at sea and swapped one in Iceland, on top of the change to the embarkation port.  Here's $50 non refundable OBC for the inconvenience.  One of the ports removed was Faroe Islands, which was a reason many on our roll call had selected this particular cruise. Yes, we will still enjoy our cruise, but are disappointed.

As we know NCL is horrible at communication.  We saw the changes in the Portsmouth news and on the port authority websites, but NCL kept insisting there were no changes until they notified us yesterday.  I know the agents can only say what they see, but geez, if the press is reporting the change, you would think NCL would be in front of the announcement with their guests.

So many reports of changes in itinerary after final payment.  I've lost trust in NCL actually delivering the itineraries they sell.

1 hour ago, EngrJones said:

AAA and AARP cards work just fine.

Just remember to take it with you when you disembark.  Replacement AARP cards take about a month.  Don't ask how I know this 😉

3 hours ago, Betsynh said:

We are on this same itinerary! Starting to get excited. There are no NCL excursions offered in Ulvik. Is it an easy place to poke around or should we arrange something locally?

I'm on that cruise, too.  I've tried to find something to do in Ulvik, but given the early season and funky time in port, I'm thinking I'll just be walking about, getting my steps in and working off some calories.  I found information on visiting the local church and the Ulvik Fruit and Cider Route, but I'm not holding my breath that anything will actually be open.  If you find something, please post on our roll call.

3 hours ago, Smitheroo said:

I just want to know how it works. Since the two people are traveling together  it wouldnt be a concern who is charged and who isnt.  That would be between the two people.    I learned on the website that the person who is charged is the one who the reservation is under.   Someone in another comment above said it even works for her who regularly travels with someone coming from a different part of the country. In that case I guess it would be better to put the reservation under the person with the lower flight costs?

 

I also learned that in the case of a solo traveler, that person is charged 50% of the airfare.

My partner and I not only travel from different cities, but different countries.  We use NCL BOGO air and get the two day deviation for international cruises.  Depending upon flight arrival times, we either meet at the airport or the hotel.  I make the reservation and the charge for air and deposit are under my name.  We do the math and tell NCL how much to charge each of our CC's for the final payment.  I figure that they estimate the cost of the more expensive flight and charge that amount.  On our last cruise it saved us a couple thousand, and we were actually on the same flight from Cape Town to Atlanta before we both continued on to our final destinations.  One odd thing about that Delta flight was I had a cheap ticket where I couldn't make a seat selection, and my partner was seated in premium.  We were going to trade seats halfway through the 16 hour flight, but I had an empty seat next to me and more room.  Since he had a tighter connection in Atlanta, he stayed in the premium seat closer to the front.  

11 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

Take a look at suggestions made in other threads. There are a number of options. You could, for example, go to the Miraflores Visitors Center, and (if a properly timed visit) see ships coming through the locks and wander through the exhibits (which I hope will be open). You could take a ferry-sized vessel back through the original Pacific locks, which might be of special interest to you since the Joy will have gone through the new locks. 
 

You might also want to consider seeing some of Panama City itself, such as Casco Antiguo. 
 

Glad you are reading The Path Between the Seas, that’s the best preparation!

 

Enjoy your trip! 

I Love the C - We are on the same sailing as you, and these are basically the ideas we came up with as well. Given the issues with the cruise terminal, I'm wondering how easy it will be to get off the ship and grab a cab / uber first thing in the morning to the Miraflores locks in order to see the morning transits.  After the visit to the locks / exhibits, we will then check out Casco Viejo (also called Casco Antiguo).  At least that's the plan at the moment.

Hi,

I am arriving on October 27th into Shanghai Baoshan cruise terminal for the end of my Celebrity Millennium cruise. We dock at 7:00 a.m. My flight is at 3:45, which means I should get to the airport by 1:30. Can anyone recommend a service where we can go to the airport (there are five of us with luggage) but see some of Shanghai on the way to the airport. If we get off the boat early enough, we technically have around 4 hours if we are off the boat by 8:00 a.m. I know that in the cruise terminals of most caribbean islands and some of Europe the taxis wait there to give people mini tours. Does anyone know if that is even a possibility and then we could have that person take us to the airport straight after? Thank you.

We're on the same cruise and wanted to do something similar. In the end, we booked the ship's city tour / transfer. They do say your flight has to be after 4:30 so that may be an issue for you, May be worth a call to Celebrity if you are interested.

Duplicate post.

Duplicate Post.

Thank you for all of that information. We are not staying in Shanghai, We are going straight to the airport and then home to New York. Our trip is from October 13 to October 27. Would you mind letting me know if we need one and also where to look, Thank you.

We are on the same cruise and heading directly back to the US as well. However, our flight doesn't leave until about 5pm so we have time to kill in Shanghai (we've been previously). Since we don't want to hassle with our luggage, we did sign up for the ship's transfer with a city "tour" to the airport to help pass the time and revisit the Sky Tower. I had previously believed our itinerary worked for visa free, but was having a hard time getting written confirmation from Celebrity. However, just recently I saw in writing, on the Celebrity site, an apparent confirmation of this. They say you must take their tour to be visa free, but I wouldn't think that's the case. That's just them pushing their tours. We were going to take their tour anyway, so it worked out for us. It was just good to see it in writing by Celebrity.

I'm very much enjoying your trip report as I will be taking the same cruise this year. I really love your photos, and as one who likes to take pictures, I'm impressed how few people there are in many of your pictures. Given the historic nature of the sites I had assumed they would be more crowded. Was it the time of year, time of week, or patience? Anxiously awaiting your Korean adventures.

Thank you to all of you taking your time to comment and thank you for your kind words!

It really was a great cruise!!!

 

I hope to post more about it soon...

 

Oliver

Taking the same trip this year, anxiously awaiting the rest of your report :)

As a fixed seating guest, I look forward to meeting my table mates that first evening and am disappointed if they choose not to appear. Chaos on that first night? Not in my experience.

 

I think the last evening aboard's dinner menu has improved. I really don't like missing that last evening with my table mates and my Stewards. All of the silliness of past years during that night has thankfully been eliminated.

I referenced chaos on the first night, because as a couple who signs up for anytime dining, it has always felt chaotic to me with no one having a reservation and everyone wanting to eat at the same time :)

Glad to hear the last night silliness has been eliminated as that was one of my reasons for booking a specialty for the last night.

Again, not having tablemates means no one misses us :)

All the options are now available, including Le Cirque & Tamarind. :)

Thanks CanadaRocks! Tamarind booked for the first night. That was my priority :)

We do the anytime dining, so we aren't abandoning any tablemates :)

CanadaRocks - We're on the same cruise as you and have been patiently checking the dining availability for a couple of months. I was first told January would be loaded in September and now I've been told by the end of this week. I was going to book the first night to avoid the chaos of the dining room. I am also tempted to book the last night as well. Admittedly, I had not previously noticed a correlation to quality of food to first and last night :) Will be interesting to see the responses.

RenoDuck

It looks kind of Native American to me, with the animals having personalities and the TeePee on the stage....I don't know what is up with the star outfits or the acrobats (?)

 

Perhaps the Italians still think everyone outside the country are barbarians, and the Irish and the Indians are pretty much the same.

OK, I'm just following this review for the sheer entertainment value alone. This comment made my day! It cracked me up so much my office mates wanted to know what was so funny! There just wasn't anyway to explain....... :)

Thanks for brightening my day!

RenoDuck

You could order it from the bank before you go.

I used rubles to buy snacks when out and about and souvenirs and would have paid for lunch with them too. Credit cards are accepted at most places. I was the only one in the group to buy the photo permit and really glad that I did.

Thanks for the feedback on the Photo Permit for Yusupov Palace. I'm leaving shortly and have already picked up my currency for the other countries.

Because I was under the mistaken impression I could just pay SPB Tours for the Photo Permint, along with my tour charge, in USD and reading that I really didn't need rubles for anything else, I decided not to order any.

I read a later post that someone was able to pay with USD. I think I will wing it and have exact change in USD and if they take it great, if they don't, I'll still have plenty of pictures of my time in SPB :)

Thanks again!

Hi All,

 

 

-- Once off the boat head to the ferry building across from City Hall and purchase the Oslo card.

 

Jason

Depending on where you dock, you may be able to purchase the Oslo Pass at the cruise terminal. You will also get a 20% discount offered to cruise passengers. That would save you having to purchase transportation to the Tourist Information office at City Hall.

We have seen this building from the road, the canal and now we are to go in. The Yosupov Palace.

There is much on the web about this stunning palace, the most important piece of history though, IMO, is the fact that Grigory Rasputin was murdered here in 1916. There is a small charge for photographs to be taken inside and I avail myself of this opportunity.

Question on the photography permit - I have been advised by my tour group that the cost is $6USD, however, it must be paid in Rubles and that there would be a stop at the ATM to obtain. Frankly, I don't think I want to pay the $5USD foreign ATM charge to my bank to get $6USD worth of rubles.

I had thought I wanted to be able to take pictures here, but after looking at yours (thank you for posting) combined with the payment hassles are making me reconsider.

Any thoughts?

And yes, the bus #30 to Olav Kryrres and transferring to the bus #20 works too! (This is an especially useful connection if you want to travel from Vigelands Park down to the Bygdøy museums.)

Thanks Kaisatsu, that's exactly what I'm intending to do :)

My interpretation of the temporary route map seem that you can take tram 13 from National Theater all the way to Vigesland Park. Is that correct?

It does look like that would work. That would be much easier if that were the case. Hopefully a local will confirm.

Good catch!

Thanks so much for this head's up as I will be there on July 24th and wanting to go from the port to Vigelansparken.

It appears that you can also take trams #13 or 19 from the National Theater and transfer at Majorstuen to Bus #20 to Vigelandsparken. Or alternatively, Bus #30 to Olav Kryrres and catch Bus # 20. Is that correct?

Thanks so much for your help!

Yes, I have explored both their sites, but I have been unable to see where it references the cost of the one stop pass. All I could find is that it says one stop tickets are sold onboard. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

And then I'm also wondering what constitutes "one stop". Is it literally you get on at one stop and have to get off at the next scheduled stop, or is it just "exiting" off the boat once after entering? Example: If I get back on the HoHo boat at Vasa, does it count as 1 stop or 3 stops to get back to the cruise berth if I only exit off once at the ship (skeppsholmen, Djurgarden, cruise berth).

 

I'm just trying to get back to ship after Vasa the quickest/most cost efficient that I can for a lunch time tour. And I'm trying to avoid busses/trams, because quite honestly for Stockholm I'm finding the system to be a little confusing.

I will be there in July and am hoping for an early direct boat to Vasa. Somewhere I read that you could purchase a single use ticket for 40SEK. My plan was to go from the boat to the Vasa and then work my way back to the ship on foot, sightseeing along the way. My back up plan, if the single ticket is not available, is to go with the whole day HOHO boat as it pays for itself pretty quickly compared to Stockholm public transit.

It appears flexibility is the key in Stockholm.

If you're from the USA, go in to any Walmart's and you can give the chip card a good workout!

I just got my Starwood AMEX with a chip and used it at WalMart last weekend. It's an interesting process. You can't just swipe the card while they are ringing up your purchase and put it away.

First you swipe the card like normal. I'm guessing at this point it registers the card as having a chip, so you then have to insert the card in the card reader at the bottom of the swipe machine and leave it in until the transaction is complete, including signing the machine.

 

 

"I will join Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Sea . 13 nights Scandinavia & Russia . This will be my second time cruising in my life . I really enjoyed my first cruise last year so I decided to go cruising again this year . "

 

 

Hi Kehai -

 

Please come join us on our roll call for the July 13th Brilliance sailing. Also, be sure to sign up for the Meet and Mingle event on the RC website.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1811841

 

This will give you some ideas of your fellow passengers and what we are planning to do in the various ports.

 

RenoDuck