MATHA531

So I was doing some preliminary planning for a cruise a year from now. Now I get the whole idea of single supplements beng 100%. It is discriminatory and wrong and should be outlawed, but there's little I can do about it. So in any event, this cruise I was looking at was beng advertised at $980...with port charges and the like, I figured when I went through a pseudo booking, it would come out to be about $2100 at most when I put 1 person. No...it came up with $2600. Then when I put in 2 people travelling, the pricing for the same cabin came up at indeed $2,000. Of course if I were going to book it today, I would make up a fictional 2nd person and oops that person would be a no show but I let it slide for the time being. But I wonder how RC can justify this and I am considering, as I have some friends in the law profession, suing them for discrimination against singles. It makes no sense.

Formal no longer means a tux and the like. I don't wear blue jeans to the mdr in any event. Instead of a knit shirt, on formal night I wear a blue oxford button down shirt and slap on a tie. I also wear shoes rather than sneaker and am appropriately dressed.

If she has time, shop around. She can get any local SIM. Data plans are dirt cheap compared to US rates. I'm not familiar with all the French providers but Vodafone and Orange are two that come to mind.

You won't find vodafone in France. They are affiliated with SFR, however.

Lebarra is cheaper than either of them.

my daughter is in france now and we are only using "Viber" we really messed up here! :( US Cellular said her samsung 6 is unlocked and to go to a phone company in Paris to get them to put in a sim card - Do you think this will work? Any advice here will really help - she is only 20 yrs old - In the meantime, I bought her a us cellular (small plan) to get her by for a little while - but expensive - If anybody can help - please do :)

Absolutely. Tell her to go to a Relay store and get a Lebarra sim card. She can read about the plans onn lebarra.fr and there is an option for English.

Checked with Chase Bank today and the exchange rate is 1.17.

 

 

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Actually, Susan, the interbank rate at this instant is €1=$1.1053 so you can see how much of a profit Chase is building in to exchange cash (although they may claim there are no fees).

If you were to exchange at an ATM upon arrival in Europe, you will get much closer to the interbank rate with a mark up depending on just how your bank wishes to rip you off (along with possible other fees).

Love it. International currency traders have no idea what is going to happen and we have the amateurs here giving advice. Actually, the euro did sink to a low of about $1.05 earlier this year and predictions have been out there that at some point in 2017, the euro will reach parity with the US dollar but who really knows. Yes, the pound has fallen to very low rates but the euro against the dollar's "fall" has been very modest since Brexit. My advice is and remains que sera sera, whatever will be will be. Nobody truly knows.

The menus are really no different than any other Carnival ship. Somebody on the inaugural cruise did a complete post of most everything; the real only difference seems to be, at least as far as the mdr is concerned, are the port based menus. There is, just as an example, a special additional menu of a couple of items tied in to Rome on Rome night. Nothing special about the menus.

Just not true. Trenitalia ticket machines rejected a card just last month so automated ticket machines continue to be a problem. Did not drive this most recent trip but I suspect attendant free serif service gasoline stations will still refuse cards without pins.[My/quote]]

 

My card worked sans pin in an automatic Italian ticket machines. Some problems, yes, but fewer and fewer and further between.

Just as an update to all of this, in a next to unbelievable move announced today, T Mobile will be offering unlimited 4g data on its simple choice plans in Europe for the months of July and August. Too bad I'm home already from my trip but the need for local sims becomes less pressing with each passing day.

Don't hold your breath for a Chip and PIN Chase card. After all, Chase is one of the big US banks who batted down Europe's insistence that US begin issuing cards with PIN numbers.

 

Instead, see if you qualify for a credit card issued by Credit Unions. Begin by checking the ones where the members are likely to be traveling overseas (e.g. Pentagon Credit Union, Navy Federal Credit Union, etc.) Based on what I'm reading online, true PIN cards are available through several of those credit unions. We've had a true PIN card for at least a year. However, the reality is that we have used our PIN only once since we received it -- in Stockholm at the VASA museum ticket machine. (Manned ticket sales were available for those who do not have a PIN with their credit card.)

Over the past few years, new regulations have gone into effect Merchants are now prohibited by mc/visa from rejecting chip and signature cards for lack of a pin at automated terminals. From my experience, although not in the Netherlands, I have not had a chip and signature card rejected for lack of a pin for the past two years. Don't worry. Your card today will almost srely work.

The short answer is that it's a moot point. No matter how advertised or claimed by bank employees or whatever, 99.9% of credit cards being issued in the USA are chip and signature preferred. It is next to impossible to acquire a chip and pin USA credit card that will default to pin. In the last seveal years, thave have hardly been any instances where there was a problem with a USA chip and signature card anywhere.

What are bacon police and soft serve ice cream police?

At a buffet, when they put out a whole supply say of bacon, one would think you just help yourself. Instead, they have a member of staff doling out the bacon a couple of strips at a time. In fairness, for the most part, if you ask for more, they give you more. Same thing with the soft ice cream machines. In many cases, you help yourself. But sometimes, they have soebody there operating the machine. Just a figure of speech.

Me? I show up for the theatre for a 1930 curtain at about 1920 usually in my official tourist outfit of a clean t shirt, blue jeans sans holes and trainers (sneakers). Much more comfortable for me that way. Since I do not drink booze, I stop at a convenience store (lots of them in Victoria Station btw) to pick up my diet coke cherry, an aero bar and potato chips in the blue package for half time uh the interval as they call it. They do check bags but have never said anything about bringing refreshments. Prices inside the theatre are, of course, outrageous. At half time, they do set up ice cream sales in front of each aisle for £3.50 or more for a small cup. Outrageous.

London is somewhat less formal than NYC when it comes to these things but as noted above it ain't what it used to be.

The MDR's are not usually opened on embarkation day.

Not questioning this. Then why does Carnival have mdr lunch menus? And in this case, they weren't opened on the only sea day either. This is clearly their right but different from my experience with other lines. And one of them was opened daily for breakfast. Just an observation; not a complaint.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm particularly interested in the embarkation portion. We've done cruises before but with RC (of which we're upper level members). So if I'm reading this correctly no food was available the day of embarkation?

No, I didn't mean to imply that. The lido buffet was open and many of what for a lack of a better term I will call its satelites such as Guy's Burgers, Mongolian Work, Mexican fast food joint, the deli. However, none of the sit down mdr's was open. (It is interesting to note Carnival does have a lunch menu at mdr's posted). I prefer after all the hassles, to have a sit down lunch but to be fair, plenty of food was available; just under hectic coditions.

What time did you show up for embarkation? We arrived at 11:30, unloaded our stuff, checked in and were in our cabins at 12:30. Also, there were 4511 passengers on the ship, the most on Vista at that point.

 

I agree with your thoughts on the buffet though, I thought choices were lacking but I did enjoy the fresh ice cream they were making everyday, not the soft serve stuff, the hand dipped stuff.

 

It's a shame you missed the show, "Flick," it was simply amazing.

 

 

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I saw Flick and it was great. I didn't think the cruise was bad at all and I will tell you there were hardly any problems with having to queue for anything. I never felt crowded. I tried to be as straight forward with my report; I didn't think it was meant or came across negative. On the whole, the shows were not my cup of tea but a couple were great. And in a port intensive cruise like this one, you're bound to have to need more time to unwind.

I have done several Mediteranean cruises; one on the Epic. And have also done cruises on the Breakmway so I'm used to Mega ships. I'll give you some thoughts and gladly answer questions and may get around to doing a full review in the near future.

The itinerary was the standard trip around the West Mediteranean with only one sea day (day2, Saturday). Ports of call every other day were Sicily, Naples, Rome, Florence, Marseilles and Palma. Having done almost all of them before, I sat out Sicily and Florence (there are only so many times one can see David or the Leaning Tower). I will tell you, what I think were the good the bad and the ugly.

Start with the embarcation which was poorly handled. But let me start by saying I made what could have been a tragic mistake at the part. I wanted to visit Paris for a few days and was stuck between taking the train to Barcelona either on Thursday afternoon or Friday (embrocation Day). I chose Friday morning because the SNCF has always been reliable. There were a series of rolling strikes by French railway workers going on but each had been on Wednesday and Thursday. Little did I know that the strike for the week I was in Paris would be Wednesday to Sunday and they canfcelled the Friday morning train. Luckily I had wifi in my hotel room on Thursday egening and was able to book an Air France flight to Barcelona Friday morning in time to make the cruise. I know, I know. Don't depend on travelling the day of a cruise. Learned my lesson.

Anyway upon arrival, unlike Norwegian with the Epic and Breakaway, there were hardly any porters. I had to wait on a queue for 45 minutes to check my luggage. Bad. Then two other queues to check in.. Close to 2 hours. Unacceptable.

The ship itself is beautiful. My interior cabin was more than adequate. One thing missing in the atrium are the glass lifts. Also none of the mdr's were open for lunch on Embarc

The buffet in the Lido was okay but nowhere near the variety I see on other ships. Breakfast was a tad disappointing up there. The omelette stations were okay but the bacon police were out the whole cruise. Also missing were some things I get on other cruise lines for breakfast such as smoked salmon, corned beef hash; at least I couldn't find them. Lunch also lacked the variety I'm used to but I will say for the most part, the food that was servied was more than okay. Of course, there was Guy's Burgers, the Mexican stuff, the Mongolian Wok, the Pizza place.

Dinner every night, for me, was at 1900 in one of the mdr's. Food was good. They use the same menu other Carnival ships use, the American Table menu. At least I could get a shrimp cocktail every night unlike the folks at Norwegian. Also they had lobster night (included) on the first formal night (of course, as I am sure you've read elsewhere, you can order many of the entrees from the steakhouse for $20 if you want). Good experiences there.

Shows? A couple were good. Most were not my style. Motown? Not for me. Cuban music? Not for me. Game shows? Not for me. The juggler/comedian was good. I also took in a couple of the comedy shows after the main shows.

A word about a terrible mistake they made. There is no real large show area. The liquid lounge is simply too small. Now I never completely checked but it seems the cruise was not completely full. Understandable as many of the cruisers were American and thank goodness we did not have hordes of little kids running through the ship as American schools are still in session (one of the reasons I like the early June cruises). The cruise director, Matt, was good and entertaining. But I don't understand why such a small main theatre with almost completely movable furniture downstairs. We'll have to see how that works out.

Debarcation was handled well; no complainsxthere.

Overall, a pleasant experience but if this is to be the pride of the fleet, they do need some work.

For years people have tried to tell mevthat coke light and diet coke were simply different names for the same drink

Nonsense. Thy taste completely ifferently. OTOH. Coke zero tastes pretty much the samevwherever it iscsold.

So, this thread, plus some advice from a couple of crew members on the Prinsendam, spurred me to look into switching my iPhone from ATT to T-Mobile. After talking to a a few T-Mobile sales folks at a local store, and carefully reading about their coverage...we are sold...and will be switching to T-Mobile before our upcoming trip to Northern Europe-Baltic. No hassles with buying Sims overseas.....no more having to deal with my old Mobal phone (and expensive cost per minute). Bottom line is that T-mobile gives me unlimited free text, the same amount of data I get at home, and only 20 cents a minute for calls. Roaming does not cost extra...so my US phone number will work all over Europe (and most of Asia) without any additional cost.

 

Hank

P.S, If you want to actually look for train schedules...the regional train company is called the "TER."

Where did you get the information that the mobile included data is 3g? I thought it was 2g.

That NYT article is OK, as far as it goes...but it does not mention MOBAL (maybe they are owned by a Conservative) :).

 

Hank

Not to be a voice of disent or in the slightest to disuade you. At one time, Mobal was a very good alternative and it's certainly fine if you don't have a smart phone and have data needs. But as I said, time marches on. Now we all have our individual needs, likes and dislikes.

For example, I can go through what I do to make sure that when I'm on holiday in Europe, I have ways to dirt cheaply divert calls to my home number to where I am at the time. I won't go through that. In another blog, I went through it and somebody scolded me that people don't want to be bothered when they are on holiday. Okay, to each his or her own.

The ability to use the major US carriers for relatively cheap roaming has only come about in the very very recent past. The thought, for example, that I have an app from which I can play most of the channels I get on my Verizon Fios bundle to me is absolutely amazing. Last year, just as an exssmple, I was able to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs on my smartphone using wifi in my hotel or use my gps in Paris to find a restaurant or find out when the next bus would arrive in London. All routine today with data packages. Who knows what will be possible in 5 years but again I am sure others will yell why would you want to watch television when on holiday. And they're right.

I know, I know. A long winded silly answer on my part. Mobal is fine for your needs; it wouldn't be so good for me. At least today. But then again, you never know.

Regards

The article i'n the NY Times is excellent. Even I can't find much to quibble with.

The times they are changing. American carriers now have various plans that include European roaming at very reasonable rates. T Mobile is the best here. With most T Mobile plans, besides unlimited calls and data in the USA, Canada and Mexico, you get 20¢/minute calls in almost every European country. Callers call in on your US number and the call rings through to you as you will be roaming on a European network in the country you're in; it doesn't relly matter which. So if you're in France, for example, if you have such a plan with T Mobile, upon arrival when you turn on the phone, it will register on a French network perhaps but not exclusively Orsnge FR. As noted all calls to and from will be 20¢/minute. Unlimited text and unlimited data albeit 2g (slow as molassas) is incouded. This is in every European country including places you wouldn't expect such as Russia. Of course, in your hotel you ight have wifi which will allow you to use high speed data. Now there are other alternatives and other carriers have plans although, to the best of my knowledge, none as good or as inclusive as t mobile. Worth a look if your carrier in the USA is T Mobile.

As far as debit cards are concerned, long ago the issue of having 4 digit pins has been resolved and is no longer applicable

 

I am getting conflicting reports if I need to switch my 6 number pin to a 4 number pin? I have a BOA debit card which I planned on getting Euros from ATM when we arrive in Greece at the airport do I need to switch my pin?

 

Six digit pins will work no problem. That hasn't been an issue for at least a decade although many guide books don't know better.

 

Having said that you are aware of a couple of things about Bank of America, one of the biggest near criminal banks in the USA.

 

They charge a fee of $5 for each withdrawal from a foreign ATM unless you use a bank's machine in their network which is not all that large and I don't know if there is a bank in Greece as part of their network. They also add a 3% foreign transaction fee for converting USD to euro that is 3% above the interbank rate.

 

There are many internet banks available which will give you a debit card that does not carry a fee, has only a 1% foreign transaction fee and in those cases where a bank has the unmitigated gall to charge you a fee for having the audacity to use their machine (not too often in Europe especially with bank ATM's) will reimburse you up to a certain amount each statement period. Examples are Fidelity (the brokerage people, Chaarles Schwab Bank). I do not advice using a debit card from your main bank as if the account gets compromised, all your outstanding checks might turn to rubber until the matter is resolved. What I do is keep $50 in my Schwab account just in case I have to get cash at home (very rare for me) and just before a trip, transfer in enough money to cover my anticipated travel expenses. When I get home, the amount left above $50 is transferred back to my main account.

 

Just some advice.

There are 7-11 all through town. I know of one right across from the City Hall by the station and Tivoli. Do you really want to cart the cans and/or bottles? (Now I admit, I'm a fine one to question whether this is worthwhile as I do it all the time especially when circumstances dictate I have to take a Norwegian cruise and thanks to their contempt for their passengers, they serve Pepsi products and not coke products but that's me).

Yes; I answered my own question by going to the carnival web site. It is included.