luvtravel

Thanks for your reply.....I was thinking that might be the case.  Taxi or car service it is.  We do have a car service from ship to airport after cruise....its about the same price...maybe cheaper but long walk to where they are parked in airport garage (read a comment on this) and thought taxi line might be closer.   Thanks again!

We're taking the Solstice to Alaska this coming Friday - 4 adults with 1 pc. of luggage each - and wondered how difficult it is to get a taxi that holds the 4 of us.

Have tried taxi websites but their info seems to only be for 2 people per cab.    Has anyone had experience with this?  Thanks!!

We'll be boarding the Solstice this coming Friday.  We arrive at Seatac at 8:30 am (4 of us have Aqua class cabins) but  informed we won't be able to board til after 11:30.       We are wondering if we purchase the ship transport, which would be approx. $27 pp - when they take our bags to put under bus at airport....do we next see our luggage in our cabin later in the day or do we claim our luggage at dock and drop there ourselves?    Taking the bags off our hands at the airport probably the only advantage to the ship transfer?   A taxi or car service for 4 would be probably about same price as the total ship transfer for 4.   Whether taxi or transport - we'll probably have to wait in taxi line or  airport for more transport passengers to arrive.  Anyone have experience with ship transfer?  Thanks for any help/advice!

16 hours ago, Shadow9612 said:

A friend of mine used to always stop their day at the cottage mid-morning for tea, and mid-afternoon for tea. However, in the morning they put milk in first, and in the afternoon they put the tea in first. I mistakenly made tea for them in the wrong order one time, and boy did I get in trouble 🙄. But I really don't understand what's the difference??

My cousin (her Mom born in Hertforshire, England) who lived in Victoria, BC - always added milk first to her tea cup....she made the best tea - steeped it just the right amount of time!   Miss her greatly!

6 hours ago, Mynki said:

But is scone pronounce scone like 'gone' or 'bone'? 

That's the real question.... 😁

 

My Gran, born in Glascow pronounced it like ‘gone’ - so I do too.  

4 of us arriving at SeaTac at 8:45 on day of departure and could be at Pier 91 for our cruise in mid July by 10am — we were told we won’t be able to board til at least noon.  Also told no facilities for baggage storage or even waiting for boarding at Pier 91 either.  Does anyone know if we can check luggage at a downtown hotel for a few hours so we can  check out Pikes (?) market.  Or other alternatives for storage.  Thanks!

I wasn't sure where to post this....but here goes.   4 of us returning from Alaska cruise on the Solstice in July to Seattle.  We have  a  9am check in at the airport (approx 2 hrs before flight time) and wondered if we should book a taxi to be waiting for us when we get off.  We had a not good experience once in Lisbon getting off and the line waiting for a taxi was so long and taxi's could not keep up and we almost missed a flight!     Cost of ship transport is about 4x what a taxi would be.   Anyone used this Pier 91 before in Alaska and might have input into how busy?   The day will be a Friday.  Thanks for any help!!

3 hours ago, JerseyGirlatHeart said:

We paid nonsale $11.80 per day

I must be missing something.....the ad says the classic drink package has been reduced 20% to $47.20 per day pp -

and the Premium package to $55.20 per day pp.   If more than 1 in a cabin...all must buy the package.      Without knowing prices of drinks, etc. - trying to figure out it would be a good buy.   Guess convenience plays a role but have read that its often hard to find a bartender - helps with the profit I guess serving fewer drinks!   We're on the Solstice to Alaska in July.    So.....where can I find the $11.80 per day??  (LOL) Also - anyone with a picture of a recent drink menu so I can find out prices.  Thanks fellow cruise critics!!

Thank you AnnaNichole!

I'm looking at booking on an Alaska 7 day on the Solstice.  Trying to compare pricing and cannot seem to find out cost of drink packages on Celebrity website. The site seems to look different every time I try it!   Not sure if it would be worth it -- or just pay for whatever we drink..which we do!   Wondered too if they have a wine by the bottle package too and a coffee card.

Sadly this is a last minute decision to sail -- so missed out on the great deals I've been reading about that included lots of perks.  Thanks for any help you can give!

HELP!
Can anyone give me an idea on how to find the 'big box' t.a. being referred to by many to see if the Alaska cruise we (with our friends) are looking to book in Sept.   The two I usually use - don't have this info.   Any help would be appreciated!!   Thanks!!!

Yes. If you have the Classic Package anything over $9.00 you pay the difference plus 18% gratuity on the overage. In your example it would be $6.00 plus $1.08 gratuity for a total of $7.08.

 

 

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Thank you!

Clarification question regarding upcharge on drinks....In the past I understood that if the drink/wine ordered was more than the beverage package covered (ie fell into the premium range) that it was not possible to just pay the upcharge...but had to pay the full price for the drink/wine priced higher. I am happy to hear I may be wrong......so can I now conclude that if my package covers up to $9 for a glass of wine and I want the $15 one....I just have to pay $6? Thanks!!

Staying in the near Victoria Station before a cruise but have an evening available to see a show at the Lyric Theater. Would be great to get a recommendation for a nice (not extremely expensive) restaurant near the theater. Good pub, Italian, Indian or Thai .... would be just great. Thanks!!:D

I've been pricing tickets for our next Azamara cruise, and Choice Air is coming in about $600 less per ticket than the same tickets booked directly with the airline. My usual concern with booking air through the airline is that many do not issue the tickets until 75-90 days before the flight, and we want to be able to select our seats before then.

 

I asked our TA if that's how it worked with Choice Air, and she said no, that the tickets are issued immediately and you can select seats. When walking through the process today, though, there was no option for selecting seats before paying for them. So I wanted to check to see if our TA is right... I had hoped we could select the seats before purchasing. I don't want to pay for the flights and then discover we can't select our seats until much later.

 

Anyone have any recent experiences booking their flights that they can share?

We've always had good luck with Choice Air....very good prices and as you say, found them to be less than airline websites. I don't believe any airline lets you choose seats before you pay....so this is no different. After paying Choice Air - we go to the airline website and select seats.

Thank you for your detailed experience on this cruise. I don't understand why some feel the need to defend the cruiseline when things like this happen...maybe they own stock. Many, maybe most, appreciate hearing good and bad experiences. We are all spending alot of $ and its right to expect to be treated decently and that the cruise should go smoothly barring emergencies and weather. I also hope you get some reasonable compensation - but nothing makes up for the bad experience and wasted time. So disappointing about the lack of leadership this ship has. We don't travel on Princess much anymore but have had a few very nice cruises in the past - but ships were probably newer and different captains and before being owned by Carnival. We do have one coming up in December on the Crown, selected solely because of dates, which after reading a number of other negative experiences besides yours, am concerned. But am thinking it only 8 days.....and in the Caribbean. For our next cruises in Europe we'll be back on Azamara and Oceania. Also will be looking to alternatives cruiselines for a trip we'd like to make to S. America - a bigger time investment. Good luck to you.

Don't forget there are under 700 passengers and many of these never go near the speciality restaurants. On our last cruise we went to the dining reservations desk in Discoveries bar on the first afternoon and had no problem getting the Times and dates we wanted in both restaurants. The fact that no-one can book before the first day means that all the bookings are available at the beginning of the cruise. If you are in a suite you can see your butler as soon as you get in your cabin (ring him if he's not around), tell him what reservations you want and he will sort it out for you.

 

 

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Thank you!

I too have been looking for the on board restaurant packages. If they don;t let you buy the package and make reservations before hand like all other lines including their own RCCL & Celebrity then how you can you get the times and dates you want? Are you supposed to just drop back and punt or not buy them? This seems to me like another dum dum Azamara policy.

 

I am getting soooooooooooooooo nervous about this cruise being first time Azamara

Kathy

I'm not sure their reasoning for handling the reservations this way. I agree its frustrating. On a cruise with Oceania last year - the specialty dining was included free in 3 of their restaurants. One of them we could never get into before 9pm...late for us so didn't go. We are wondering if we purchase the package on Azamara if it will be a problem getting a reservations at or around the time good for us. On other ships with pay-for restaurants - there seemed to be no problem getting a reservation. Aside from this issue -- Don't be nervous...I believe you will really enjoy your cruise. This will be our 5th time on Azamara - and have really enjoyed each trip.

thank you everyone......now I know!!

We are booked on a September cruise and taking care of details for our trip. We want to purchase a restaurant package shown on the website but cannot see a way to do it, although we clicked on the 'phone or do online purchase' tab. We tried calling but were on hold over 30 minutes before giving up - and that was using their system that's supposted to call us when they have an customer service person available. Very frustrated with Azamara's website and antiquated reservation system. We have always been happy with any customer service person we've spoken to when we've been able to get through. We have cruised this line a few times before - and had forgotten that these same issues existed then too - so they haven't been able to do an update. We do have lots of time I think to purchase this -- will call during the week unless anyone has been able to do this restaurant purchase online and let me in on the secret (LOL:D)!

Thanks!!

Thank you everyone for confirming what we thought! Couldn't imagine them turning down $$ (lol!).

Anywhere on the ship that an individual drink with a premium liquor can be ordered and charged for or do you have to buy the Premium Package that covers the whole cruise. Think I know the answer but asking just in case I missed something! Thanks!

UPDATE: I talked with a VP at that travel agency and explained my situation. He immediately had my file transferred to another agent (from her title, I think one of their top ones)...and she took care of the issues, including correcting some of the file information. She also sent right away the detailed invoice of what we had booked and corrected the final payment date that was originally in the file. Now when when we call, we will get her to help us with arrangements.

Glad it worked out like this as I have a feeling transferring a booking from one agency to another may not be doable? But can from the actual cruise line to an agent under specific situations.

We are near final payment date on Sept., cruise we booked through a non-local TA. Think its a fairly big outfit - we get so many mailings from them. Used them on 1 previous cruise and service wasn't very good, but they give a pretty good cash back vs OBC. So when booking this cruise they came out somewhat ahead of others...so called again--my mistake. Had to leave a message, no callback so had to call again. Since I knew what we wanted-just gave her info when she did pick up the phone. She did not respond to my comment about not getting any callback. After making deposit--she did not email any confirmation or reservation # or details. I also asked her to look into transfers for us too but no callback on that. Now, wanting to pay final payment before the due date (she just said first week in May-Azamara said they could not help with that date) as we are ready to go ahead with air plans, etc. - no response to my call. I did manage to get my booking # and confirmation that deposit was made from Azamara, but said I did need to keep trying my TA. I would like to transfer my booking to another place...any advice on ability to do this...or how. Thanks so much.

We usually do our own air although we have used O's air on a few occasions when it was to our benefit. We used the $99 upgrade to premium economy on our NY-Copenhagen/London-NY flights last summer, which was very good but not business class, of course. Only once that I can remember did we see a business class option for a reasonable price. Usually if you ask for business from Oceania, if they offer it the cost will be prohibitive. The one time we used it was for Heathrow to JFK and the price was worth it.

 

But that business fare is only good for flights over water. For us that was fine, but if you need another flight from your U.S. destination to your home (or from a foreign destination to the ship), you will be in coach for those portions.

Just spoke to Oceania and did find out about the limited business class and since we live near the west coast that doesn't work well for us. They were not offering any 'promo' upgrade. Their cost for add on limited business anyway was alot, especially without knowing routing and getting the reservations that would be better by paying a deviation might not be available that close to departure.

After looking at both cruises to similar ports - (Azamara/Oceania) - we are leaning toward Azamara -- but knowing the Marina is the sister ship of Riviera which we've been on -- we will miss those larger bathrooms!

But we still have a few days to ponder all of this! Thanks for your input!