Scottygirl1

True - here is the article and from a reputable source. https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/409356/coronavirus-4-cruise-ships-refused-entry-into-tonga

The trouble is that our cruise will be part of a 6 week holiday. We are travelling from New Zealand and if flights or anything else is cancelled insurance doesn't cover any of it! We can defer the cruise for the following year so will do that.

It's not rare and it's going global. We are cancelling our two upcoming cruises mainly because we can't insure for pandemics/epidemics and we stand to lose many thousands if we end up not travelling.

Our travel policy, with a major international brand, specifically excludes epidemics and pandemics. I think we won't be taking the risk to travel.

From what I can tell he actually held the girl out of the window - I would never ever do that with a child, let alone even hold them high near a balcony! Yes, he has to live with this forever but I'm glad it wasn't the cruise's fault. I noticed a lot of these sliding windows recently on Reflection and I'd hate to see a law suit make them all become barred up or something.

Did you see this? People removed from your ship in Picton! https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118468149/cruise-passengers-removed-as-ship-docks-in-picton

We just got off Reflection the other week and yes, Concierge class up had footstools. Those chairs do recline too.

We went to the World Class bar one night but they couldn't make up the drink I wanted! They said they could only make what was on the list so we left. Our dinner sommelier didn't listen to us until we got more forceful about what we wanted. Things got better all over the ship once we got more assertive about what we wanted 🙂

Yes, there was a bar set up there but they had the most dreadful wine! There were servers coming around later in the cruise if you got to the theatre early enough. The bar inside the theatre had only one barman who was constantly off getting something so the queues were crazy.

I enquired about booking another cruise onboard. I was given a really expensive price plus no gratuity included (like I do when booking from New Zealand). I came home from holiday and booked the exact same cruise, same cabin but with more perks for around $2,000 less, including gratuities. I think the onboard selling is not a great deal!

Interesting. On our recent Reflection cruise we upgraded but were rarely offered the premium drinks! When we ordered the more expensive wine at dinner we were offered a lesser wine on more than one occasion. This also happened around the ship - at the Theatre bar they only had the cheaper (classic package) wine! Often when we asked for champagne (the one covered under the premium package) we kept getting the cheapest bubbly from the Classic package. I actually complained to the hotel director on the ship and to be fair they looked into it and miraculously we were offered better wine at dinner. I also found that other than the Martini Bar, most bars offered drinks within the classic package. Other than the availability of the sparkling water and better quality still water we felt a little cheated by the premium package. We certainly never had any bartenders remember us as others have said. Getting a drink was always such a long wait too. I found the bars to be extremely understaffed - the bar outside the Theatre only had one bartender and the wait there was ridiculously long. Another thing that we noticed was that they were selling drink packages onboard for half price! Too bad for those who had paid more. Overall we were very unimpressed with the wine offered, availability of wines at different bars and service level. I'm really not sure if we'll bother with upgrading our drink package for our next cruise - we might just pay the additional dollar or two when we want a better wine with dinner.

We didn't get the afternoon snacks after day two - they really were not good. We did enjoy the embarkation lunch and the priority boarding. One thing though with Concierge this time though was a free galley tour plus a sail away with officers on the helipad. We only upgraded for a larger balcony and are not going with concierge next time.

We didn't mind the burgers on the Reflection the other week but the big problem was the pool activities with loud music and loud speakers. We couldn't communicate at all with the burger servers and everyone was pointing and yelling trying to let them know what we wanted! Not ideal and I didn't get what I wanted because of this.

I wouldn't say they dress up more on European cruises. We just returned from a Caribbean cruise and I was very surprised at the gorgeous dresses and outfits generally across all nights, not just Chic. We were on a long trip so I packed the bare minimum (just 3/4 black pants and dressy tops for me and long black pants and collared shirt for my husband) but we fitted in just fine anyway. Our next cruise will be European again and I can tell you we will again not be getting too dressed up!

This trip to White Island has been popular for many years without incident. I know many people who have done this but I too struggle with it being an excursion. I seriously don't think people realised the potential danger. It's a dreadful tragedy.