kitkat343

My tour guide in Roatan, Honduras worked for Carnival. When they stopped in Roatan he decided on the spur of the moment to just quit and go home. The Honduran government had a law that prohibited cruise ships from leaving unless everyone - passenger and crew, even their own citizens - were accounted for. The ship was held, Carnival tracked him down at his parents' home, made him sign documents that proved he quit and banned him from working there for life. I don't know how many ports refuse to allow ships to leave without everyone, but I'd read that was the rule in Russia (I didn't return to the ship anywhere near late there so I have no idea if that's true). But I think letting a passenger return to a ship depends on local laws and the captain's discretion so you would be risking being thrown off the cruise altogether unless you can get permission in advance. I agree it would be nice to stay in Germany an extra day if it is allowed, and best of luck getting permission to do so.

Thank you all - this is very helpful. There were only interior rooms available and we have five people (2 adults, 3 kids) and we get 2 cabins, but that leaves us with only 4 beds (there's a pullman from the top but the kids aren't allowed to go in there and my youngest wants to sleep with me and my husband has a bad back so the pull down pullman isn't an option) so knowing the couch situation is very helpful. Thanks so much.

Hi does interior room 5073 have a couch on the Queen Mary? Does anyone know or is there somewhere on a map I can look it up?

Thanks so much - I was wondering about the history of the regulations of Geiranger and Flam.

Hallasm could you clarify something for me - I was under the impression that the Norwegian government wanted the limitations on travel. Does UNESCO have anything to do with these restrictions?

Oh, if people have children please note that we took a 2 and 6 year old on our cruise, and the review in my signature line has some info on kids and the ports. My kids also liked a tour in Flam where you went to a goat farm and then had a local lunch (which included goat that we didn't tell them they were eating since they'd just played with them).

I took a 7 day cruise to Norway and Geiranger, Flam and Olden were my 3 favorite ports. We didn't visit Alesund, but it is greatly loved on the Baltic forum. Geiranger has amazing viewpoints (please note that the highest only opens after a big annual avalanche, sometime between mid May and early June), Flam has an amazing railroad and Olden has the Loen skylift and Briskdal Glacier (a glacier which has been hit hard by global warming but as long as you know to expect a reduced glacier you will enjoy the scenic ride there and lovely hike to the glacier. There are troll cars you can rent at the Broskdal Glacier if you are traveling with small children or have a disability that would make hiking difficult). One slight thing to note: Norway doesn't allow cabs to transport small children without car seats. If you book cabs ahead of time they are required to provide them, but its important to factor that into your planning if you have small children because most of the ports are too small to have public transportation. We really like RC, but had a lovely time on Cunard to Norway and I would generally recommend choosing a Baltic sailing based upon itinerary and not cruise line. The one exception is NCL, which has been experiencing difficulties keeping itineraries. On my last NCL cruise, they cancelled one port and the morning of another after final payment to help the environment. They continued to advertise the original itinerary for the following month, and didn't let anyone cancel, including people who booked directly with them after the change and were not notified by the NCL phone operators of the changes at the time of booking.

The itinerary looks great. But after my last experience on NCL (they cancelled one port and the morning of another after final payment to help the environment, continued to advertise the original itinerary for a month after the dropped ports and refused to let anyone cancel because this all happened after final payment) I was very concerned about booking the next NCL cruise that I loved the itinerary for - the Prima to Iceland and Norway. And there were a lot of problems and cancelled ports on those voyages and I was really glad I hadn't dragged my 3 kids on that cruise. My best advice would be to go and look at cruise critic reviews of the dawn, and see if they tend to make the itinerary on their baltic cruises . https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruise/norwegian-ncl/norwegian-dawn/reviews And always double check the cancellation policy of any private excursions prior to booking when sailing NCL.

If you are hoping to do more touring than visiting a beach, then private excursions for just your family so you can control the itinerary are really helpful. A beach might be fine on a NCL excursion if there are cabs there so you can get back if your kids get overwhelmed earlier than scheduled. You've mentioned that you've read NCL's reviews, so you would know if that particular ship has been making its itinerary recently. If not, you need to plan out your excursions at the backup destinations that NCL usually goes to if it tends to cancel ports on your cruise (this may not affect you at all, and the reviews you saw would be the best indication of whether or not this is an issue for your individual ship). If making port stops is an issue for your ship/itinerary, make sure you also review the private excursions cancellation policy prior to booking. On the first day, go to breakfast buffet with a bag. Get yogurt, fruit and boxes of cereal to take back to your room. That way you will always have snacks on hand if your kids get hungry at a time when there is limited food available (someone was always asleep in one of the rooms for my family so it was a little harder to order room service and snacks on hand is important). I don't know if you can take sealed yogurt off the ship, but you can take sealed cereal boxes so make sure you have some of those for excursions. Also note that the kids menu is free for children your kids age in specialty dining. One restaurant (Italian) offered to make an appetizer for our kids instead of eating off the kids menu. They told us that was because all the kids menu items are made in one kitchen and it's far for them to travel. We did have to wait awhile for kids meals, so that would make sense. You cannot expect specialty dining to allow your child to eat anything but kids menu for free, but it might be an option (and is totally up to them since you can always pay for extra food or share your food with your child at a a la carte restaurant, but probably not modernos). Some parents bring small blow up pools to create a bathtub for their children at the base of their shower.

One thing to consider is that your experience for seeing these viewpoints is very weather dependent. On a clear day they are spectacular; on a cloudy one not so much. We were very lucky with our weather in Geiranger, but it was. a little more foggy / rainier in Flam and Olden. The Flam railway won't take up a whole port stop - we easily combined it with a visit to a goat farm a local lunch (traveled with kids and they loved it). You will have enough time for at least two things, and can consider the viewpoint if the weather is good. We travelled in May. I know the railway will sell out and you absolutely need to get tickets for that ahead of time, but there might be availability for the viewpoint that would let you plan that last minute if the weather is clear. One other thing to note is leave yourself time to get on line for the train. The few people who didn't appreciate it got there late and got bad seats and couldn't see much on the ride up (the train stops a few places). The train station is seconds away from the port, so you don't need to allocate much time to get there, but don't plan another excursion first that would make your time tight.

I saw lots of doors nicely decorated on my last cruise. This policy might only exist because NCL doesn't want the hassle of dealing with people who are angry when their door decorations are stolen. We've seen people on these forums asking security to review tapes to find out which passengers stole their decorations. While I understand the frustration of the victims, I can also understand that NCL doesn't want to deploy resources tracking down magnets that have been stolen. If door decorations are banned, NCL can turn a blind eye and ignore them while they are hanging but if someone goes to them to complain about theft, NCL can tell them they weren't supposed to be there and therefore they aren't going to investigate it. I don't decorate my doors because I have small children and don't think it's a good idea to advertise that by putting our family magnets on the door (they have pictures of my kids) - we just hang our magnets in the cabin. I'd only recommend putting magnets on the doors if they don't have significant sentimental or financial value to you - otherwise keep them inside the cabin (the walls are all magnetic too) like I do (for me its a safety thing for my kids, but I'd only put stuff on the door that I wouldn't be too upset if it got stolen). If you put a small magnet on the door to identify it easily, then you won't be too upset if it disappears (which is I'm sure all NCL would do if it decided to enforce this policy) so I think its totally fine to try as long as you have no sentimental attachment to your magnet.

I wouldn't fly just to go to Cozumel. It's totally fine, but not worth a flight by itself. Costa Maya had a nice excursion to the ruins with Native choice and then lunch cooked by Mayan grandmothers (not sure that's an option on a 4 or 5 day cruise but the girls might just prefer a beach day, which is fine for Cozumel but you don't have to fly for that)

Are both parents going on the cruise? It's a pain to get passports because technically both parents need to be present at the application. I wouldn't chance it without both parents since if you get stuck its going to be hard to process emergency passports without both guardians (I don't know what happens if you get stuck overseas without them but in the US both parents have to go to the appointment to get them) Whenever the cruise ship has had an emergency in the past, they have gotten the people without passports back by sea. But if you get left behind in a port, then you are in trouble since it is your responsibility to get back and you will need to apply for emergency passports to fly.

We took a 2 year old and he loved Norway! He's 8 now, so you should contact them directly to see what they are using now but back then they used a large bus. If you do the troll car at the Briskdal Glacier, you might want to ask them if it is possible to get a longer time before you need to return (they give you a time to get back to meet the troll car). My 2 year old slowly but steadily walked all the way to the glacier but it would have been less stressful if I'd thought to try to delay the return time. I had nearly turned around when we almost reached the glacier and was glad we were able to make it since it was a lovely, peaceful spot. We went to Geiranger, Olden and Flam, so if you are doing those ports you might want to look at the review in my signature line to see what we did.

I've sailed the coral princess twice and never noticed they played the love boat song! I think we can definitely cut that if it is annoying people in port! Also, to the people on this cruise, Olden is a great port - the Loen Skylift is amazing on a clear day, and we also did the Briskdal Glacier in the same day - the glacier has been hit hard by global warming, but there was a very scenic bus drive and hike to it, so if you are prepared for a very small glacier it will be quite lovely. There are troll cars you can rent if you can't hike, which leave you with a short, flat hike to the glacier. My 2 year old was surprisingly able to make it. Olden Adventures did a great job of providing transportation to both attractions.

I sailed Alaska on the Coral Princess (really old ship, no kid amenities but great ship for interesting itineraries). Did a one.way from Vancouver, and there were a ton of kids on our sailing in June. Maybe try the Alaska board too to see if they think there would be a lot of kids on that sailing? Ports are amazing for kids in Alaska, so hopefully your child will be happy on that cruise if you pick it for itinerary over boat.

Honestly, I would have assumed that if they let me bid on a category that they had rooms in that category my party could fit into or they will cancel the upgrade. I wouldn't have checked either.

If you arrive early, and it's empty they'll wave you through. If you arrive early and it's crowded they may or may not enforce boarding times. Best of luck to you.

Back when ships had private babysitting they charged the parents at the babysitting rate for all the hours the kids club wasn't open. They wound up with a really high bill, but not much they could do about it. I wonder with a teen if they parents called the port agent and gave permission to let the teen off the boat if RC would be willing to let the teen wait at the port to meet the parents and the whole family could either go home or proceed to the next port together.

Actually, you should speak to your kids to get their input on this big trip. Would they like to go to a beach? Would they like to visit cities? If they have traveled in the past, where have they gone and how have they enjoyed it? In Europe, my two favorite cruises were the Baltic cruise and Norway. there are Norway cruises that leave from Southampton, and if you think your kids would enjoy exploring places with stunning views that might be an option. My favorite ports were Flam, Olden and Geiranger. In Flam, there was an amazing railroad and we also visited a goat farm. In Olden you can hike to a glacier (it's been hit hard by global warming but is quite pretty.) and take a gondola to the top of a mountain, and in Geiranger there are lots of beautiful scenic outposts. I also liked my Baltic cruise, and there's lots in Stockholm (Vasa, open air lemurs in Skansen), Copenhagen and Tallinn for kids (I loved St. Petersburg but that could be quite awhile). My kids (13, 8, 5) preferred Royal Caribbean over other cruise lines, although Princess has a very good kids club (no waterslides though). Surprisingly, we sailed an old unimpressive RC ship (Adventure of the Seas) and my kids preferred it to the megaship we sailed on NCL (Getaway). The Getaway was in much better shape, but it was much easier to get around AOS, and the food was much better on RC, so I'd start with that. But if you think your kids would like itinerary and travel, consider Princess or even Cunard (we took a 2 and 4 year old on Cunard for Norway and that trip worked since they loved the ports). If they want ship amenities like waterslides try newer RC ships. And if you can afford it, consider private tours for just your family. Thea ability to control your itinerary and take breaks whenever the kids get overwhelmed might be the difference between enjoying the tour and dragging miserable teens/tweens everywhere. Whenever my kids started to get cranky, we'd stop for gelato and they would cheer up. If you are sailing for itinerary, just be careful with NCL. On our last cruise, one month prior to sailing NCL announced that they were cancelling the stop in the DR and the morning of Antigua to help the environment. My children had wanted to visit a giant tortoise island that only has tours in the morning, so I contacted NCL to request that we be able to switch to an identical sailing a few weeks later, but they denied that request because they dropped the ports after final payment. They continued to advertise the original itinerary, and didn't let passengers who booked after the port cancellations change their reservations either. This has been happening to a number of NCL sailings so if you chose NCL make sure you check private tour operators refund schedules prior to booking: For NCL, also check the recent ship reviews to see if they are diverting similar sailings to yours and where they might be going. For the DR they'd cancelled that a lot, so I knew I needed to research Nassau and GSK as backups but we wound up with an extra sea day.

Sorry - please ignore my dates, which are usually wrong - I think the general thing to note is that Norway may not always be accessible to cruise lines and I'd recommend seeing it sooner rather than later if that's something on your radar.

Rhapsody is evacuating Americans with valid documents out of Israel https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/10/16/royal-caribbean-helping-the-united-states-evacuate-americans-israel

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/10/16/royal-caribbean-helping-the-united-states-evacuate-americans-israel

Both the Baltics and the Norwegian fjords are spectacular, for the reasons Kaisatu correctly identified. The only thing I would add is that please note that Norway is scheduled to restrict access to the heritage fjords (which include Geiranger and Flam) starting in 20205 to ships that are zero net emissions. If you think you would be interested in visiting Norway, I'd do it next summer. If you are looking for a 7 day, my favorite ports were Geiranger, Flam and Olden. The one thing that's tricky about Norway is that the weather can be tough, and a lot of the ports are weather dependent in that the spectacular views are diminished if the weather isn't clear. The other reason to choose Norway next summer is that it would give another year to see if St. Petersburg might reopen. I definitely wouldn't bet on that, but if you went to Norway next summer to see the ports that will have limited access in the future, there's a better chance of St. Petersburg reopening in the summer of 2025 than in 2024, but again that's nothing you can expect to happen soon, since even if the war ended tomorrow they'd need time to ensure that Russia is stable before letting people visit again.

It's not expensive, but if you miss it it the rest of the day's trains could be full if there are multiple ships in port and you might not be able to reschedule the train for later. We easily did two tours in Flam, but had a bit more time in between. Have you looked into alternative providers for the second tour so you can give yourself a bit more leeway?