mek

16 hours ago, Jasukkie said:

Personally I wouldn't do it at that price. Only an oceanview balcony gty. I'd choose an oceanview window over boardwalk or central park balcony. 

We've had Central Park, (which we liked very much - especially for the price), Boardwalk - which was just OK, and OV on the hump balconies.  I guess I'd rather have the option of fresh air and being able to sit outside regardless of the location over a room w/o a balcony.

15 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

If you ever go to Maui (or other Hawaiian Island) do your Whale watching there. (Especially May and Dec) - Much warmer ride

 

If the Hawaiian islands are not in your plans, go see them in Alaska.

I've done both and we had a nice experience in Maui, but IMO, nothing compares to the whales in Alaska.

32 minutes ago, rjrpar said:

Same here, booked an 11 nighter from Bayonne for $2700 , a std balcony for 2.  A little research can save a lot of money. 

Great prices are still out there and IMO, always will be.  But if it's necessary to book a year or more in advance and have a particular cabin/location, ship, then options will be, as they always have, more expensive.

Once I was on Navigator the first week of January and the decorations were up until the 3rd or 4th day of the cruise.

1 hour ago, Ret MP said:

I didn't say anything about anybody making less $$ just because anyone paid less for a cabin.  All the gratuities are put into a large bucket (figuratively speaking) and then divided up amongst the various recipients.  Take the sum of all the on-board gratuity and divide it up as they do now, which I don't know the breakdown and don't care. 

 

I never reduce or remove my prepaid gratuities and I also tip everyone that brings me a drink, serves me a meal, and/or provides a service for me and I have direct contact with.  

I never reduce or remove tips, give extra at the end of the cruise to those who directly provide a service to me, and always give a cash tip for each of my voucher drinks, but personally think pooling tips is a bad idea.  It assumes everyone provides the same level of service, which is definitely not the case.

7 hours ago, Ret MP said:

As usual, I haven't read every post in this thread.  So, excuse me if I repeat what someone else may have said.

 

I don't know why cruise lines can't charge gratuities as a percentage of your cruise fare.  As stated in at least one other post, if you pay a fixed rate no matter what class, category, cabin you paid for, the less expensive cabins pay a much higher percentage of gratuity than the more expensive cabins.  20% of your cruise fare doesn't sound unreasonable to me.  As one that usually cruises Star Class (not bragging, just fact), I don't mind paying a little extra for gratuities (which I already do).  But, I don't think the policy of making the prepaid gratuities or making changes onboard optional should be changed.

IMO that would be totally crazy.  Not everyone pays the same rate for a particular cabin class - not talking about suites, Star Class......  Why should a cabin attendant be make less from me because I found a super low rate - which I frequently do.

Just had one on the aft hump on Allure - not a problem.

1 hour ago, kj_connections said:

I am trying to choose a TA sailing.  How does one choose?  Obviously some are lower priced because there are barely any ports and then the ones that are more expensive have more ports (I think this is the pattern I am seeing).  Can anyone comment on whether this TA with the following ports is any good?  Starts off in Bayonne and visits Madeira, La Coruna, Le Havre and ends up in Southampton.

Not a particularly exciting itinerary.  There are some great TA's with interesting itineraries, but it really depends on what you are looking for.  Since you will be on the ship for a couple of weeks, do your homework and make sure they offer you the options that are important to you.

3 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

I’m going to post this in Holland and RCCL forums.  We have sailed on 3 Transatlantics previously on Princess and NCL and love the relaxing sea days combined with appealing ports. We are booked on the Holland America Nieuw Statendam 14 night Transatlantic  on April 8 with only $1 deposit.  Final payment due in January.  The fare is about half of what is it selling for today for the Inside cabin.  Airfare through FlightEase also booked with decent $300ish one way fare back from Spain.  We’ve only sailed HA once many years ago. We are Carnival shareholders, so get the $250 OBC shareholder benefit and some OBC from travel agent and those are pretty much exhausted with crew appreciation charges.  We are 60 and 62.  We like the itinerary with Ponte Delgada, Azores, Gibraltar and 3 stops in Spain (Cadiz, Malaga and Alicante) before ending in Barcelona.  We will take a train to Madrid for 2 nights and return to Florida from there.  We love Spain and have not been to Gibraltar, Cadiz or Alicante.  We’re also excited that the ship is newer.

The dilemma comes in because we have a $500 Future Cruise Credit with RCCL with no expiration.  They have a 12 nt TA from Canaveral on the Jewel oTS with port stops in Ponte Delgada, Cherbourg Fr, Dover UK and end in Amsterdam.  Other than ending in Amsterdam I am not excited about the itinerary.  We also have not sailed RCCL for many years either.  The price of this cruise is much less than our HAL cruise, but we have no shareholder or onboard credit.  Our OBC covers ¾ of the cruise price before tips. However, initial fare savings are partially offset with higher airfares coming back from Amsterdam or Brussels if we go there after the cruise.

Considering price, itinerary and features of the ships and our ages, what would you do?  Like I said we haven’t sailed either cruise line for over 20 years so don’t know the awesome features each has to offer.  Tell me some things I may not know when comparing the onboard experience.

I have done the HAL itinerary on Royal and thought it was great.  I agree with you abut the Royal itinerary - not especially exciting.  I would probably do the HAL cruise.

It just amazes me that people don't know how to handle a situation where they're not happy with something like this.

A simple, "It's been very nice chatting with you, but now we would like some private time" should do the trick and if not, then speak to the head waiter.

Why fume about something that you have total control over?

2 hours ago, njkruzer said:

Agree,

 

At least your time changes are while you sleep.   For reasons that I don't know, the QM2 on EB crossings makes the time change at noon. That's crazy.  Lunch isn't at noon but 1 and if you want to go to tea, you feel like you just finished lunch. 

We had that on one of our Royal eastbound TA's and it really was annoying.  It screwed up early dinner.

2 hours ago, allyfree said:

That's smart ... paying for a private tour won't avoid the lengthy travel and any delays on the autoroute could compromise your return to the ship

However, you won't have to wait for large group to board the bus before you depart the ship or leave the destination.. If you want to make a potty stop, you won't have to wait in a long line.  You most definitely will save time once you arrive and will see more than a Royal excursion.

I've taken many private tours in Europe and have never missed the ship, but I understand everyone has a different comfort level with private tours.

12 hours ago, allyfree said:

depends on where you're joining from, I guess .... Southampton is obviously closer

Possibly true for those in the UK, but my response was directed to the OP, who is from Canada.

9 hours ago, kj_connections said:

Thanks everyone.  I've been to Paris and don't foresee going back in the near future...so I was thinking of seeing Versailles if my itinerary includes a stop in Le Havre.

One more thought - have you considered looking into a private excursion and seeing if you can get a small group together on your roll call?  Private guides are amazing and know how to avoid long lines.

2 hours ago, UnregisteredUser said:

Another thing that is intrusive is all the upselling the first day on a cruise. We were cruising with a couple of friends this summer and it was their first cruise. My friend was actually put off by all the contact and efforts to sell us something on the ship the first day. First we were approached about buying the Drink Package when we sat at the English pub, we politely declined. 5 minutes later another guy comes and starts giving us the sell pitch on the Chefs Table. Before we sat down there were a girl trying to sell spa treatments to my wife and my friends wife. My friend commented that this starts to look like Egypt or Turkey or timeshare sellers, will they ever leave us alone? I told him it would stop the second day and it did. But sometimes people need to back off a little and read the situation before they make their sales pitch.

We were on Allure last month and never once were we approached to buy anything and we were sitting right in front of Sorrento's while we waited for our room.  I never thought about it until now, but it never happened on this last cruise.

In my opinion, Amsterdam is the easiest port to sail from.  Hotels are not far away and the airport is close.

The season is short - suggest you just check prices and see what pops up.

It will be a long trip, but if you think it might be your only chance to go and it's something you want to see it, then I say go for it

My favorite holiday and best day of the year.  Happy Turkey Day to everyone.

9 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

I seem to recall one report several years ago when the poster got booted anyway, though I don't recall the specifics. When oversold, even folks without a GTY booking may get the offer to move to another sailing. For folks with flexibility, it can be lucrative.

I had this happen years ago on NCL.  We had a 10 nt. Panama Canal booked and they called us with several offers - the best one, which we took, was a 14 nt cruise up the west coast of South America from Santiago through the canal, and ending in Ft Lauderdale including air, which we had not yet booked for the original cruise.  The deal was worth several thousand $'s for us to change.

14 hours ago, tinkr2 said:

I think you will have a great time on Panorama. Ive been on Horizon and its a fantastic layout. The lunch choices on Carnival are awesome, Guys Burgers and Blue Iguana. enjoy saving the cash.

Lots of good things and fun on Carnival.  I'm Diamond on Royal and Platinum on Carnival and I have found the ships/passengers to me more similar than not

1 hour ago, topnole said:

So what.  Surely they must have current protocols for the spring voyages.  Are you saying they are filling the TA ships up with no stated Covid protocols in place.  I find that hard to believe.  

Where have you been for the past 2 1/2 years?  Protocols/testing/vaccination requirements have changed at the speed of light and it really didn't make any difference what they were when someone booked - the cruise lines have the right to change them at any time.

Let's all hope nothing goes backwards, but never say never.

23 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I trust the thing that I can get in writing, because even if it's wrong, it gives you proof. 
 

Best thing for this family to have done was assume they were going to have to abide by the most strict protocols to-date. Their oldest child should have been vaccinated, and they should have gotten tested just in case. Had they done that, even if they thought it wasn't needed, this wouldn't have happened. 

Absolutely agree.

Too bad the OP has never returned - I always question these one post rants.

4 hours ago, SRF said:

WHY would anyone put a high end whiskey (or other spirit) in a mixed drink?????

 

Guess it depends on what you consider to be high end.  I would never put Booker's or Blanton's in a cocktail, but I use Knob Creek, Elijah Craig in Manhattan's because I think you can taste the difference in something like that.

3 hours ago, 2chiefs said:

Most breakfast items I like are really not very good in the MDR. Not because they are not prepared properly but because they are usually cold by the time it makes it to the table. It's just the nature of breakfast items such as toast, pancakes or French Toast. They get cold fast.

 

I really love the cinnamon rolls from the bread basket. 

Last month, French Toast in the Windjammer was ice cold.

4 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Now Celebrity is a different story. I always wear pants at any restaurant on their ships. I cruise on Celebrity 2-3 times a year. Every cruise I see multiple people turned away from the MDR for some kind of dress code violation. 

So have I - it's almost always because someone has shorts on in the MDR for dinner or during some special events such as wine tasting.