rsachek

Here's a link to all of the daily programs. Beware that there's a million ads on the hosting site but hey, it's a free site that I didn't have to register for. https://postimg.cc/gallery/S4JhBG3

I posted an image of one of the daily programs from our recent Celestyal Journey Idyllic Aegean cruise on another subforum and someone asked if I could post them all. Well, here you go! It's 7 days x 4 pages each = 28 images. https://postimg.cc/gallery/S4JhBG3 Sorry for all of the ads but it's a free hosting site that I didn't have to register for lol! My wife and I were surrounded by some pretty sick passengers on our transatlantic flight back home, and now we're feeling under the weather ourselves. Once I feel up to it, I'll add a full review to the other helpful reviews on this site. In the meantime, if there's anything you'd like to know, fire away! Note from the dailies that the drink packages are sold at a discount during the first day onboard, if you're considering one.

^^ I do have all the daily programs, but it's 28 pages to photograph and upload (7 days x 4 pages each). I'll see if I can squeeze this task in. The formal night (captain's night) is on Monday, following Kusadasi. There's also a Greek-themed night on Wednesday (Santorini).

My wife and I were just in Santorini on the Journey on May 1. We did the walk from Fira to Oia and took the public bus back. It would seem from the Santorini buses website and comments from other cruisers that the bus stops in Imerovigli, but I wouldn’t count on it. I can’t comment on whether that stop happens on the way from Fira to Oia because we didn’t take the bus in that direction but I can tell you that on the way back from Oia to Fira, it definitely does not stop anywhere in between. The return bus takes a route along the eastern flat part of the island. We took the bus back to Fira at around 4 pm and it was perhaps half full, although I’ve heard there can be long waits after sunset. If you wanted to walk between Fira and Imerovigli, I’d call it about 1.5 miles each way. As far as the tendering process, check out the image below (click to enlarge). The ship uses large tenders from shore, not the tenders/lifeboats stored onboard, so the process goes quickly. Tender tickets are numbered 1-5 and groups 1&2 (called together) were off by 9:00am, with groups 3-5 (also called together) maybe 30 minutes later. Later in the day, no tender tickets are required. We were lucky and hit the cable car with no wait to ride up, despite two other medium-size ships in port.

That was a few months ago. Presumably, no compromise was reached or perhaps none was even attempted. A verdict should be expected literally any day now, given that we're nearly at the end of April. There is speculation that even in a best case scenrio — the conservancy prevails and the ship is allowed to dock indefinitely at the old rent rate — the conservancy doesn't have the funds to sustain. RXR has been chipping in to cover expenses for several years and I believe that relationship is now over, leaving the conservancy to pay the full cost. One has to imagine that donations are dwindling gives how many years this saga has dragged on.

Thanks for the replies, all. Very helpful. I would actually prefer to book directly with NCL, but some TAs are offering considerable onboard credit and one is even willing to discount the price of the cruise in the amount of the onboard credit instead and I'm too cheap to pass that up.

Can anyone comment on the logistics of using the CruiseFirst certificate if booking through a travel agent? Do you still pay a deposit at the time of booking with the travel agent? Then once the cruise is linked to your Lattitudes account, can you apply the certificate and the cerifiticate amount is then deducted from the final payment balance? Does this sound correct? I have tried contacting NCL and two different travel agents and nobody seems to have a confident answer.

^^ Yeah, the rent dispute trial started last Wednesday (January 24th) and was only expected to last a day or two, I believe. I was expecting to have heard a verdict by now, but apparently the relevant parties will be notified in writing at later date, which could be as late as March or April. The conservancy is hanging its hat on a lease that was re-negotiated in 2011 after the ship was acquired from NCL. The lease spells out an $850 daily rate “continuing until upon removal of the vessel from its current location.” On the other hand, the landlord’s defense is that the lease wasn’t intended to be in perpetuity and nobody expected the ship to remain there for so long after the lease was signed. The judge in the trial recommended that the two sides try to work something out via negotiation, rather than a court ruling. In my opinion, a good compromise might be to keep the old rent rate until the end of 2024, then the ship has to either begin paying the higher rate or move. Honestly, it is silly keeping this rusted out, gutted hulk around any longer. If it was ever going to be repurposed, it would have already happened. New York firmly doesn't want the ship there, anyway. They're saying it won't even fit at Pier 76 and would require dredging. See: RXR's Ship-to-Hotel Conversion is in Deep Trouble The conservancy has fought a good fight, but it's over for the Big U.

At this point, I think the conservancy is willing to donate the ship to any city that's willing to accept her. They might have a slick set of drawings for the mixed-use plan, but no lender or investor is ever going to piss away $500 million on this pipe dream. How would that investment ever be recovered? $500 million is literally how much professional sports stadiums cost to build. The United States is not that historically significant, either. It had a short, boring career and there's nothing original to see inside because it's all been gutted. Plus, modern society doesn't care about old-timey ocean liners. The Queen Mary in Long Beach has been a financial disaster for anyone foolish enough to invest. And that ship was fully intact and well known by the public at the time of it's hotel/exhibit conversion.

The SS United States is in a rent dispute that could leave it without a berth. Time to throw in the towel, methinks.