BrendiniOne

On 8/2/2021 at 5:06 PM, NewYawkYankees said:

Update: no exemption yet, but the only Bubble Tours in Mahogany Bay and Cozumel are sold out.  This is getting suckier by the minute...

I agree. We were on Royal Caribbean two weeks ago and they don't have Bubble Tours, unvaccinated guests can take ANY ship tour. We are fully vaccinated, but sailing with our 4 year old grandson on the Vista in 2 weeks. I would not be so upset if Carnival offered a reasonable number of Bubble Tours. There's only one available in Mahogany Bay and it has terrible reviews. I did call Carnival to ask why their rules, which are supposedly based on port rules, are so much more strict than Royal Caribbean, After 2 hours on hold I was told they interpret CDC guidelines differently.

On 10/4/2021 at 7:21 PM, dad son team said:

So I get home from work and there is a large postcard with this offer from Casino Royale.  It list several ship, all 3-5 days thought the end of the year.  Fine print has a few specific sailing that it doesn't apply to.  It's valid for one inside cabin for 2.  My question is, has anyone received this before, and what's the catch?

No catch! Got the same postcard. Called. Booked. Sailing in 10 days!

On 3/8/2021 at 12:46 PM, caymancouple said:

We have a cruise booked on The Liberty in September.  I just got a survey about taking that cruise.  Why we booked, what made us feel safe, our thoughts on the vaccine, masks, social distancing, flying, were we driving or flying to the port and why.  I could really see they are trying to decide what passengers are not only expecting but will make us feel safe, and what we are willing to accept as changes.  Any body else get one?

I got the survey for our Liberty of the Seas cruise in October 2021.

We prepaid for laundry on our Mediterranean cruise last April. $7 a day and worth every penny. We will never sail a long cruise again without it!

We have had similar issues. On our Oosterdam Mediterranean cruise last April we were at a 6 top. It was a 14 night cruise and one of the couples only showed three nights. They were vegetarians and pre-ordered elaborate meals for every night. I felt so sorry for the waiters going to the extra effort for food that was just thrown out the majority of the time. The other couple at the table ate in the Lido about half the time, so we mostly had a 6-top for two.

We have cruised Alaska 4 times and Holland America is our absolute favorite cruise line for that itinerary. We love it because we spend most of our day strolling the wrap around promenade deck. It is close to the water and absolutely perfect for soaking up the gorgeous views.

As for your son, we took our 3 daughters on one of the cruises. All were 20 somethings at the time. Two were single and one had her fiancee along. Well, even though the clientele was a bit older, the 2 single daughters had a blast - with the crew! HAL apparently encouraged the staff to hang out after hours with the younger people on board. They bought the girls drinks and did a variety of activities from Human Chess to dancing and karaoke.

Thanks for the heads up! I didn't think it would help much on my 18 day Hawaii cruise in December 2017, but I called anyway. Still had the same great rate and they added the prepaid gratuities and $50 beverage card. Nice!

We are also very excited to be travelling on this cruise! Someone mentioned laundry. We purchased unlimited laundry for the 12 days at $84. Decided it was worth the cost to pack light and come home without a mountain of laundry!

We used HAL's Flightease for our upcoming trip to the Mediterranean. Our cruise is one way from Rome to Venice and HAL's price beat anything we could find by about $400 per person. We are flying into Rome several days early and have an extra night in Venice as well. HAL was very helpful and let us choose our flights.

As for ticketing. I upgraded our outbound seats on United right after booking. However, the return flight on Air France would not let me upgrade until the tickets were actually issued by HAL. I called Flightease after final payment and they ticketed the flight right away so I could upgrade the seats.

A wheelchair accessible stateroom opened up on Liberty of the Seas for the same week as our Jade cruise, so I jumped ship. Just too many changes. We will keep the 35 day Transatlantic and Mediterranean we booked for next April and May because it has the ports we really want to visit. Hope things settle down with NCL by then.

The Jade has shaved an hour of port time for our December 12 cruise in both Roatan and Belize. We just booked the 35 day Transatlantic & Mediterranean cruise for April & May 2016. This will be my first trip to the Mediterranean and I sincerely hope NCL does not start cutting those port times as well. We have cruised 26 times, but only once on NCL. With all the changes it makes me very nervous. It seems like the company is floundering. We actually wanted to book a different cruise in December and cancel the Jade. Unfortunately, our soon needs a wheelchair accessible room and all the other cruise lines were booked up for accessible rooms.

The wife and I will be sailing on the Royal Princess on June 26, 2015. So excited as I have not been to Europe. Planning 5 days in London pre-cruise. Anyone done this cruise? Any suggestions?

Well, we finally took the plunge and booked a European cruise! Anyone else on this cruise? I found some great stuff on private tours for a couple of the ports.

Brenda

Snowcat,

We were on the Westerdam in March and were assigned to open seating. We very much did not like it. (Yes, I am a REAL person...not making this up as was alleged in an earlier post!)

The first thing we did when getting on the ship was find the reservations desk and make dinner reservations for 8:00. We were given a confirmation card and instructed to be at the door 15 minutes early. We arrived at 7:45 PM - and stood in line for 50 minutes to be seated! Service was awful. For the entire cruise we had only one very busy waiter and no other service. The next morning, I spent about 30 minutes trying call for reservations and never got through. Instead, I went to the main desk and waited in line to make our dinner reservation. That night, we were seated more promptly and met 2 very nice couples. The topic of conversation was our frustration with the dining arrangements. One of the other couples said that they had not made reservations the first night and waited for 2 hours to be seated. Eventually, they were told they would not have any tables open that night and told to go to the Lido for dinner. They hurried up to the Lido deck and were among the last people served before it closed.

We enjoyed the dinner company and asked our waiter about being seated together at the same time each evening. He told us to call reservations. We were not successful in arranging that reservation. After a third night of total frustration, I contacted reservations again and pitched a fit until we were given traditional seating. Imagine our surprise to discover that the traditional - late seating - dining room we had requested had numerous empty tables for the duration of the cruise. While we were happy to have traditional seating, the service did not improve. We again had only one very harried waiter with no support staff at all. Most evenings I could not even get my water glass refilled!

We loved the Westerdam and we will be sailing on her again in November. However, we will probably eat most meals in our cabin or on the Lido deck. At least on the Lido I can refill my water glass!

Brenda

Pussycat,

Thanks for the link, but I am on that board as well. It just seems like the cruise critic boards are a bit more active.

Hey All!

My wife and I are planning our second Olivia cruise at Thanksgiving on the Westerdam. We loved our first Olivia cruise, but usually choose the cheaper mainstream cruises. However, when we got the 2 for 1 offer we decided to take the Olivia plunge again. Anyone else booked on that cruise? We'd love to chat.

Brenda

(And Suzanne :)

We're from Dallas.

 

BrendiniOne-My partner and I both work at Half Price Books. I think we have a store in or near Humble. We have many in Houston, I know. Graet place to work and excellent benefits :) .

 

God Bless Texas!

Chris,

We LOVE Half-Price Books! I'm a teacher and I find great deals for my classroom. My wife and I are both avid readers as well. If not for 1/2 price books we could not afford to cruise ; )

Brenda

Postalgrrl.

We are in the Houston area. Just north, in Humble.

What a great thread! My partner and I love cruising. Our next one is planned on the Westerdam on March 16th. We have only done one Olivia cruise and we loved it, but they seem a bit pricey.

Brenda