cruisead

Dance classes aren't only for couples. I've never heard of improv classes, and we were on Summit last month. The tastings vary in price, depending on what tasting you try, but most are in the $20 to $25 range and are definitely not covered under any beverage plan.

We've had Verizon and have traveled extensively throughout the world and never had to purchase any kind of plan for our phone to work in every country.

There's fresh squeezed juices, cold cereals, oatmeal, various pastries, bagels, fresh fruit, omlets, eggs of any style, pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausage, ham. I would guess that if you wanted something special, you could ask, but we found the regular menu to be more than enough, and very well done.

I never look at anyone's card. But I think they make the cards different colors so that crew can see the different colors. For example, the hostess in Blu can quickly glance at the card color to see if the people coming in are AQ guests.

Aloha :D

 

I thought all cruise line were no-cash on board. Gratuities for restaurants & room stewards were paid in the "voluntary/mandtory" daily service fee charge. On board purchases were charged to suite & settled up at end of cruise if you didn't leave an open credit card beforehand. The only cash I've seen recommended was for additional tips for exemplary service. Even pay as you go bar drinks had 18% tip included in charge, as did Spa visits.

 

You should really check this out if it is of concern.

 

Aloha :D

I think you misunderstand what the OP is asking. They want to know if you prefer to pay your final bill using a credit card or cash. When you check in for the cruise, you must either give them a credit card or cash. But you are right that cruises are mostly cashless except for the casino and extra tips.

You need to post this on the Family Cruising board. There are a few who have taken cruises as solo parents.

The Kids Clubs are not really considered day care, but a place for kids to go and have fun with other kids their age. Most kids love the activities in the club. BTW, the child must be completely toilet trained to enter the club or the swimming pool. You just go to the kids club area to sign your child into and out of the club.

Royal Caribbean provides in cabin baby sitting at night so parents can go off for the evening. The cost is $19 USD per hour. There's also group sitting in the kids club, after 10pm, at a cheaper per hour rate. There are some venues where children under the age of 18 are not allowed after certain hours at night. And, not that you would do this, but children should never be left alone in a cabin at any time.

As for her sleeping, you'll need to break her of the habit of sleeping until noon way before you leave on the cruise. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of problems on board with a very upset child, and you might experience some behavior problems and you will miss a lot if you're sitting around waiting for her to wake up. Don't wait until you're on the ship to stop this habit of sleeping until noon.

We were on board a ship when a group of law enforcement came on board very early, right after docking. We saw them taking off four young men, all in handcuffs and in various states of dress, and loaded them into vans. Our cabin steward worked one of their cabins, and he told us the arrest was for drugs.

And, do not forget Alaska out of San Francisco with Princess.

 

Bob

The OP specifically said they want a cruise in March, 2016. There are no cruises to Alaska in March. Alaska cruises start in late April or early May.

You're going to be pretty much limited to Carnival and Princess, out of Los Angeles, with the itineraries being much the same, regardless of ship or cruise line. You will probably have stops in Cabo, Puerto Vallerta and Mazatlan. The only difference will be whether you want a 4 or 7 day cruise.

Twelve people with luggage, you're going to need three regular size shuttles like the ones Super Shuttle uses. You might want to research a bus type shuttle, or one the size that car rental companies use. With one of those, all twelve should fit.

OP, the day of the week that you're disembarking the ship will also impact the amount of time you'll need to get to the airport. And, there's a lot of road construction going on in the greater NYC area, so again, that will impact your decision.

We were on a recent cruise where we knew there was a group of 500 on board. What we didn't know was there was a second group of 650 and a third group of 200. It did negatively impact our cruise as many venues were closed every day or evening for the groups' activities. We noticed that activities for those of us not with any of the groups were severely curtailed as there weren't enough open venues.

Porters are too busy with those disembarking to take your luggage before 10am. With so many pieces of luggage being offloaded you don't want to mix your bags with those who are leaving the ship.

No rental agencies within the port area, but you can rent from any agency and they will have a shuttle that will take you to the place at the airport where you pick up a rental car.

Well, Capt BJ, if you want comparisons, look at the old Seabourn ships that carried 204 passengers. They had accessible cabins. The new, somewhat larger Seabourn ships have accessible cabins. Crystal carries under 1000, they have accessible cabins. Silversea, Regent and the smaller Princess ships have accessible cabins. So, there's no excuse for a NEW BUILD ship not to accommodate the disabled with even ONE freaking accessible cabin. It's obvious that Viking doesn't want the disabled to travel on their ships or riverboats.

There's no accounting for idiots. It's similar to the terrible people who went and took selfies right after the attack on UK tourists in Tunisia.

Personally, I feel Viking cruises has a problem serving the disabled population, period, and has nothing to do with where they dock or being in Europe. Their new build, ocean cruise ship, which is a full size cruise ship, has NO accessible cabins. NONE. Seeing how their ship(s) will eventually sail in this part of the world, this is unconscionable. I wonder who in that company made the decision to not have even one accessible cabin.

Yes, this person could be denid boarding, depending on what the arrest was for. If it was a felony, or for DUI, that's pretty serious in Canada.

River cruises are not at all disabled friendly. In most of the ports, you have to walk from the boat, up stairs or dirt paths, to road level. Boats dock in places that are not anywhere near street level, and therefore you will have to make your way up some pretty steep paths or a lot of stairs, that not even a wheelchair can handle. You might find yourself staying on board the boat for most, if not all, your cruise.

Not for nothing, but the upper suites & Zenith members already pretty much get everything. What more can they give, if you are getting everything? :confused:

That's not my point. What I was trying to say is, when they introduced the Suite Perks program, they increased the fares for the suites to cover the cost of those perks. Now, with this "Go" program, they increased the fares for the suites again, to cover the cost of the perks, which were supposedly already covered by the first fare increase. DH did the math, and our fare for a cruise we booked for next Feb, has increased about $800pp. Why is that, seeing how those perks were already bought and paid for with the old, pre-Go program fare increase.

For those new to jobs, you might be required to work for a certain number of months before you get even one day of vacation. For some companies, you have to work a full year before benefits like that happen. But every company is different, and you should speak to someone in HR to get the specifics.

With this new bundling business, I'm wondering what's going to happen to the perks for those who are in PH, RS, Reflection suites and Zenith members? If X has raised the fares (again) for those suites, then something is not right. People already paid a lot for those suites, but if they've raised the prices again, and the fares were already raised when they started that program, then this is nothing but a money grab for Celebrity. To be honest, I'm getting a little ticked off with Celebrity and all the kaka they're pulling with their fare structure. Many of us are frequent cruisers and can figure out when we're getting ripped off. But like they say, a sucker is born every minute. Celebrity is forcing people to include things in their fares that they might not want.

Come on Celebrity. We don't need/want your gimmick fares. Just give us decent fares and let us decide what we want to spend on board.

The outlet to charge your wheelchair is by the desk, and not the bed. You need to ask for an extension cord if you want the wheelchair by the bed. I would bring the manual wheelchair for the bathroom. They are large, but knowing how massive some power wheelchairs can be, you might want to have the manual chair, just in case.

We were just in a RS and could not order anything from Luminae or Murano in our suite. Only room service or the MDR

I would err on the side of safety, usually cruise lines do NOT provide visas for travel, in my experience.

 

Not true. Many cruise lines, including Celebrity, do provide blanket visas for their passengers in many countries. We've had Celebrity provide visas for us in Russia and Vietnam. But remember, things might be different for an Italian National than it is for a US citizen.

On the website of the company that make this game, it's described as being for horrible, despicable people. Sorry, not my kind of thing, and doesn't sound like the Celebrity passengers we've met on our 50+ cruises on that line.