leonardofan

I do appreciate the information supplied by the above posters. As a potential customer, I do not appreciate Costa expecting me to use my paper and my ink in order to obtain enough information for me to confidently make a decision to spend my money with their company. It is not going to happen.

 

I agree with the comment about customer service. Why would the agent with whom I spoke tell me to request a brochure through an Italian e-mail address? If none are/were available, say so! MSC's customer service seems just as bad. I clicked on their "chat online" button several days ago and because they were "busy", they could not "chat", but promised to get back to me. Well, I am still waiting.

 

I would, I think, enjoy sailing with an Italian-oriented cruise company. Looks like this may not happen, thanks to their business model.

MSC will have a ship based in the US next year--They are Italian based, have brochures in English, and (at least from my experience sailing with them) excellent customer service

If your Carnival cruise in Feb is your first on a Carnival Corp. cruise line, you will be credited with being a "One Star Mariner" when you take your first cruise on Holland America. Sailing on HAL automatically enrolls you in their Mariner loyalty program.

 

Your husband will also be considered a "One Star Mariner" because he is sailing in a stateroom with you (all in the same stateroom have the same benefits as the highest Mariner Society occupant). His room card will also have a "One Star Mariner" star annotated on his room card.

 

The only advantage to being a "One Star Mariner" is that you and your husband will be permitted to attend the Mariner Society Embarkation Luncheon in the Main Dining Room. The waiter service in the opinion of many is that a sit-down lunch is preferable to the often chaos in the Lido Restaurant (buffet).

 

The Mariner Society loyalty program gives you credit for each day cruised (double if you are in a Neptune Suite category) and credit for one day for each increment of $300 in onboard spending plus HAL excursion spending. You can read more on the Holland America website.

 

As you increase in star rating, you get discounts on minibar, laundry, Specialty Restaurants, etc.

When did Carnival Corp change their policy? In the past you got NO credit for sailing on other Carnival brands, and you were enrolled in the appropriate frequent guest program AFTER your first cruise.

Hi again, There are 4 of us boarding HAL in FLL.....we are told that transfers from the airport to the port are $19.00 per person.....should we pay for the transfers or find a shuttle or taxi instead? We will be arriving around noon for a 4 o'clock sailing....thoughts?

The airport in Fort Lauderdale is very close to the port--you will save a LOT

using a cab, aside from avoiding the boring wait for the bus to fill.

Apparently the ship will be used to reactivate the Semester at Sea program

So I assume when you do die, you'll switch to HAL to maintain the experience of cruising with your peers? :)

 

Harris

Denver, CO

But they are NICE dead people :p

1) The Berlitz Guide rates X consistently much higher than Royal

2) After 4 Celebrity cruises I tried Royal and was appalled--the cabin was nice but the lack of service outrageous --

every short-order cook in the world can make a hamburger medium, but on Royal you are not allowed to order one:mad:

and the Wal-Mart greeters babble at you at the door of the MDR while their colleagues get the lead out.

It's a floating theme park, and not a very good one.

Will the Century's artworks be transferred to other Celebrity ships or are they

going with her to China? :confused:

Lubeck is the world capital of marzipan;)

The March 15 issue of Fortune has a lengthy profile of Fred. Olsen (the industrialist, not the cruise line).

Most of the discussion is about TIMEX and wind farms, but it is very interesting.

Just found this post over on the Royal Caribbean forums:

Not close to a world record--during WWII the Queens carried double that and more on trooping voyages between the US and UK

Never had a chance to sail on her, but it is sad to see the smaller ships leaving the line. They did provide some alternatives to the new mega-ships.

Try Holland-America's Prinsendam (before they sell her, too)--same size as the R-class ships but more elegant.:)

I'm old enough to remember the France with it's branch of a real Paris art gallery (Vision Nouvelle)--why can't THAT be a model for today's cruise lines?:(

Two virtues of the TA--

Ship is likely to be less crowded

Price likely to be less

Thank you for the answers. I would love to cruise on S class ship since Solstice came in service. I prefer the Nieuw Amsterdam itinerary for this cruise. We've been to Ochio Rios, climbed Dunn River Fall and visited lush rain forest with very capable tour guide/driver. But I think once is enough (just like sky diving).

But to my surprise, DW enjoyed DRF and wouldn't mind going back! :eek:

I read mixed review about Labadee for being aggressive/pushy vendors there just like Jamaica.

If we cruise on January 2016, I will be 64 years old during this cruise and I am blend in with the crowd on either ship. :)

In defense of the Labadee vendors, I found them beyond charming. As I was going back to the ship I waved to one vendor I had dealt with and thirty people waved back...

Does anybody understand the reasoning behind giving the name of Cunard's first ship to a P&O ship??? Cunard lives on it's traditions and this seems like shooting themselves in the foot... (I know they're the same company now, but their advertising goes out of its way to make it seem unique...):eek:

Why is P&O the only alternative??? Princess seems to deliver a much better product at a more than competitive price (notwithstanding that it, like P&O, is a Carnival subsidiary) Or Celebrity or Holland-America? We Americans aren't such terrible company.:p

Ok we are looking at a Hawaiian cruise out of LA in Jan of 16 . Carnival and Princess are the two lines we have it down too. We are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary . Here lies my question we are going to book a midship Balcony , is Princess $772.00 (1544.00 total) a person better than Carnival . If you think it is please tell me why .Thank you for your replys

If it's your 25th anniversary, )it's a special occasion and b) you're not teenagers. It's worth a splurge for the more personalized service and more elegant ambiance. I agree with the poster who recommends skipping the balcony if you have to. (But be sure to splurge on the Chef's dinner).

We are just back from our 4th Princess sailing, & had a great time! I thought I would share some of my thoughts.

 

I thought that the service in all areas was fantastic. Our room steward was top notch; always with a smile, & the knack of somehow knowing when we were out, & magically having the room done. We had a balcony (big!) room on Caribe deck, which was fine, even without the couch. But can they make the shower any smaller?!, don't drop the soap!

 

We had anytime dining, which we have had on all of our Princess sailings, however, this was the 1st time we experienced waiting just about every night. Not fun. However, we enjoyed the food, & found the wait service great. We ate breakfast in the Dr most days, & were impressed with the fact that they NEVER let you run out of coffee, & are ready with the pepper mill immediately; something that has been lacking on Celebrity in recent cruises.

 

Probably our biggest disappointment was the buffet, which we found to be cramped with too few offerings, which were just so so. We much prefer the layout & selection on Celebrity S class ships. However, we love the fact that you no sooner sat down, & someone was there with a smile to offer coffee & juice, & at lunch, a cocktail server was always there to take our order.

 

It was nice to see that Princess still has a full activities staff; Celebrity has cut theirs about in half. Also, it was very noticeable to us how much the crew seemed to get along, with a lot of interaction & smiles when dealing each other. This transcends to the passengers.

 

The new terminal in SF was fine, but the lack of inside waiting area would be missed if it were not a nice embarkation day. We were lucky to have a beautiful sail away day. We also took a very reasonably priced Princess transfer to SFO, & were entertained by a very charming bus driver!

 

Overall, a great cruise, & we are looking forward to some Platinum perks after our next Princess cruise!

 

Any questions, I will try to answer them.

After 5 Celebrity sailings I took Princess a couple of years ago and was much impressed--great service all around. My only quibble was the food -- high quality but to me unambitious--what my mom would have cooked thirty years ago if she had the time and the budget. I thought Celebrity at least makes a determined effort to have a sophisticated international cuisine--they screw up the odd dish, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. What's your take???

Pullmantur just posted their 2014 catalog on their website. We will be going to Ajaccio,Corsica; Tunis, Tunisia, and Civitavecchia, Italy. Very happy with the itinerary.

Ajaccio town is the most boring port call I have ever visited--apparently the trick is to rent a car and see the countryside...;)

What He said......

 

I have been following the Quantum board and also some other sites and while it's new and there are probably a lot of things to work out, I have been reading that many cruisers are unable to book the dates and times they want in each restaurant and it taking up to 2 hours on the phone or more to make reservations and they still cannot get it all done.

 

Now the number one reason we fell in love with cruising (besides being on the water) was that we did not have to worry about where/when we were going to dinner. We didn't need reservations, our table was waiting for us with staff who treated us like "celebrities."

 

Please do not bring dynamic dining to Celebrity. Heck I even want them to get rid of Select Dining and go back to totally traditional in the MDR. But that won't happen.

Hear! Hear!

I love sea days and 700 passenger ships (sailed TA on Regatta, Nautica, Sagafjord, Prinsendam(twice). The virtues are the personal attention and the ability to form ongoing friendships with other passengers. But for the OP- NO! Thirty something tablemates on the Century were unhappy with the --for them-- limited choices on board, and the Century is 3 times the size of the R-class ships...

The Inca Empires looks like it is a round trip cruise to Lima (Callao) with the ship spending two nights in Lima. In April, 2013 we did a repositioning cruise on HAL from Buenos Aires to Boston with an over night stay in Lima. We loooked at the expense and timing of the HAL excursion to Manchu Picchu. It looked like we did a lot of traveling in a short amount of time for a lot of money. We decided to Fly to Buenos Aires via Lima, take a five night excursion to Cuzco and Manchu Picchu and fly on to Buenos Aires. On the cruise we used the overnight in Lima to explore Lima.

 

After we left Lima the had a chance to come experiences with the people who took the HAL excursion. They were uniformly positive but some of them, like some people in our group of four had problems with the altitude. They flew to Cuzco, had a short tour of Cuzco on day one. On day two they rode a bus and train to Manchu Picchu, toured the ruins and returned to Cuzco in the evening. They stayed in a five star hotel in Cuzco. On day three they flew back to Lima, took a bus to Trujillo where they rejoined the ship. They had the chance to see Manchu Pichu and a little of Cuzco.

 

Our trip was organized by a small travel company, Adios Adventures. We flew to Lima on our own. On day 1 we flew to Cuzco. We were met by our guide who took us to a nice 3 star hotel. We then did a walking tour of Cuzco. On day 2 we toured the Inca ruines around Cuzco and had the chance to further explore Cuzco. On Day 3 we were driven to Ollytatambo a city near Manchu Picchu, explored the area and stayed in a hotel. On Day 4 we traveled to Manchu Pichu, and returned in the evening to our hotel in Ollytatambo. On day 5 we drove back to Cuzco to our original hotel, and explored a number of sites along the way. On day 6 we flew back to Lima and on to Buenos Aires. The total cost of our trip was about $2500 per person including the extra airfare for the stop in Lima and the Lima/Cusco roundtrip.

 

Our only regret we did not spend more time in Peru. If Manchu Picchu is on your bucket list and you have the time and money, I would suggest spending at least ten days in Peru including the trip to Manchu Picchu. I posted a review of our experiences in Peru on Trip Advisor.

I agree--Peru is worth 2 or 3 weeks--and you wouldn't have to spend more than $3000, either!

While it would take a lot to dislodge the Prinsendam from my personal Hall of Fame, I thought the Century came awfully close -- I'll miss her!

We actually prefer the smaller ships. It's nice that with all of the other cruise lines going to super, mega ships, X is deciding to go with 90 tons or less. We are sorry to see the century go away this year! They are just wonderful ships and if it helps the ecosystem, even better!

 

We would hate to loose bistro though!

As far as smaller ships go, what Royal Caribbean needs to do is invest in some newbuildings for Azamara--it's becoming increasingly irrelevant with Viking about to be double in size and Oceania already triple the size of Azamara.

I just got the new Ponant English brochure, so they clearly want English speaking guests, but they are very vague about arrangements for them,

Guaranteed English speaking shore excursions? Entertainment? What percentage of pax are English speaking?