Torquer

I have personally only used the public vaporetto boats, until our upcoming trip this summer when we will use the water taxis. They claim to take credit cards. BTW, I have read that tips are neither required nor expected for the drivers (as tipping in general is very minimal in Italy, and much of Europe for that matter). Here is their website for the consortium of water taxis in Venice: https://www.motoscafivenezia.com/en/

We are in the same boat. We plan to take a private water taxi from VCE to our hotel, and then another water taxi from our hotel to Tronchetto for the HAL bus transfer. We will let our hotel call the water taxi company on the morning we leave Venice. Unless you are in exceptionally good shape, you cannot walk from St Marks to the entrance to the people mover; it is way too far with bridges and suitcases. You might be able to use the public vaporetto boats, but you would have to figure out the connections. For the four of us, a private water taxi is not unreasonably expensive, but it does get a bit pricey for just two people. However, your options are pretty limited.

I think the OP is being way to optimistic and risky on what can be done in one day on your own. On our first visit to Rome, we took the ship's shore excursion. This was only our second cruise ever so we did the ship's tour since we were worried if a private tour company would get us back to the ship on time, given how far Civitavecchia is from Rome. It was a hectic day but a good introduction to Rome. Years later, we were on a cruise that ended in Civitavecchia and we then spent 3 days after the cruise exploring Rome. The only site that we actually duplicated between the two trips was the Coliseum, and that was because it was included in a package deal with the Forum, that we purchased through our hotel's concierge. If I had to do it again, I would have done a guided tour by a private company, instead of from the ship for our visit. But other than that I would strongly encourage a guided tour for your one day in Rome. You will see much more, be less tired, and definitely less stressed about getting back to the ship on time.

Several posts above mentioned "ATM/debit card". Be careful; they are not the same. We have never had a problem in Europe getting cash from an ATM machine using a debit card with either the Visa or Mastercard logos on the card. On the other hand we have almost always had a problem trying to use a straight ATM card in Europe that just uses the NYCE, STAR, etc. network from the US. It just doesn't work over there, for the most part. We have had success using a straight ATM card in Europe on the Allpoint network, but those machines are few and far between (but there is no fee for them if you can find one).

Have tickets really been issued? This cruise will be the first time we are using FlightEase, and so far things have gone fine for us. We just made final payment for the cruise and airfare. The next day I went to FlightEase and clicked the "Issue tickets" button. Today, I went to the FlightEase site, and clicked the "View e-ticket". Our ticket numbers do show up there. I then went to the Lufthansa website to double check and could not get in right now; it looked like a problem on their end. I then went to the Air France website to double check our return flights, and our flights show up, along with the eTicket numbers and seat assignments. So other than the glitch with Lufthansa, which I think is just their temporary problem, does this mean that HAL actually paid the airlines and the tickets have been issued? In other words, you would not actually have an eTicket number until this has occurred, is that correct? Sorry, I don't know exactly how this works and with all the horror stories I have read about FlightEase lately, I want to be completely sure everything is in order with our tickets.

Question on transfers from Trieste back to Venice Wow! Hope things improve for our cruise on Oosterdam later this summer. Can you tell us about the transfers from Trieste back to Venice when disembarking. What time did the buses leave Trieste? HAL has refused to tell us what time they will leave, and specifically if they will be early enough to catch flights out of VCE around noon.

I always felt these 4 category upgrade sales were just a marketing gimmick. The website never provides any real details; if I book category X, then what category do I get upgraded to. You have to contact O and they will make up whatever rules they want to maximize their profit. Why can't they provide details? We are fortunate that we are always able to cruise in OS/VS/OC suites. Has anyone ever been upgraded to one of these from PH as part of one of these sales? If so, I would jump on it, but I have never even bothered to investigate, because I figured there is no way O would allow it. I just sniffed a couple of the cruises listed for the current sale and it says it applies to categories C-PH2. I assume the upgrade from PH2 would be to just PH1, even though the higher suites are still available.

Question 2: It is relatively easy to find an online travel agent that will give you a discount or rebate of 4% to 10%. Depending on the TA, they will take it off the price you pay them. Others will give you a rebate check once you have completed the cruise. You will almost certainly have to call or email the TA directly; they do not list the exact discount on their websites and we found the more costly the cruise, the bigger the discount. We always stay in a Neptune or Pinnacle Suite, so this is really a significant amount of money. If we stayed in less expensive cabins, I would probably book directly with HAL; that way you can have your assigned Personal Cruise Consultant that may get questions answered quicker than a TA. Question 3: For cruises less than 14 days, we have found the deposit to typically be in the $500 range, per person. But it varies based on the cruise and HAL often has specials that reduce it further. For example, on a 12-day cruise later this summer in the Pinnacle Suite, our total deposit for 4 people is only $600.

I think someone is having a problem with basic counting skills. In your example, 1 day before is Tuesday, 2 days before is Monday, 3 days before is Sunday. You are saying if the requirement would have been 1 day before, then it would have to be done on Wednesday (your embarkation day); that just doesn't make sense. Furthermore, why are you bringing 72 hours into play? HAL never mentions hours in: Europe cruise protocols PDF Now, I don't know precise wording from Spain, but the post above on Canada's 2-day requirement has a completely clear example: post #13

@LaminatorThat is truly an amazing offer...I never heard of Neptune Suites being comped by the casino....and 2 of them at that. I have to ask the question, and you are certainly free to simply not answer if it is too personal: how much money do you gamble on a typical cruise to get that kind of comp? A ballpark figure of how many digits in the number is fine with me. Congratulations on your good fortune...you hit the jackpot the instant you embark on the cruise with an offer like that!

First, you said that "If you purchase restricted fares and HAL cancels your cruise....you are out of luck..." Obviously, that is not correct; if you pay for something and they do not deliver then they must provide a cash refund (not FCC). It is only if you cancel, that you are out of luck. But even that is not completely correct, at least recently with covid; we canceled two non-refundable cruises and used the deposit for a future cruise. Furthermore, I have never read in the HAL policies or heard on CC that purchasing refundable cruise fares has anything to do with FlightEase. I believe HAL gives equal help with flights that are changed or cancelled by the airlines. Now our cruise this summer is the first one we are using FlightEase, so I am not an expert; can other people confirm or deny this.

Since you are in a Neptune suite, in most cases you will be able to board as soon as boarding opens on embarkation. For the other people in your group, Whittier is a special port since it is so far from airports and other transportation. The vast majority of people come on HAL-supplied transportation. I suspect they will stagger the arrivals so that people will be able to board soon after they arrive at the terminal. Now the train does hold quite a few people compared to those arriving via buses, so there may be some boarding delay.

Our cruise in August is the first time we ever used FlightEase; previously we booked our flights directly with the airlines. The reason why is the uncertainty of covid. We wanted to be able to cancel the cruise, including the airfare, up until final payment. You can't do that if you book directly with the airlines. Even after that, if HAL would cancel the cruise, which they have done lately, we would get the airfare back directly from HAL. Our business class flights to Europe were also about $500 per person cheaper through FlightEase than directly with the airline (right now, the airline prices have gone up and it is $1000 cheaper). In addition, we were able to rebook our flights several months ago and get a better deal, since the price was lower. Again, you are not locked in until final payment. The big negative is the FlightEase website which is incredibly bad. Most times that I go in to check if there are any better/cheaper flights, I get an error message and cannot see anything. Everyone has the same problem and I don't understand why HAL can't get this fixed. I am also a bit concerned that our flights will disappear in the FlightEase system which has also happened to an alarming number of people lately.

I suspect the vast majority of passengers do not give any additional tips than the amount that is automatically added to the bill. First, unlike in the US and Canada, for most of the world tips are not a big part of the compensation for people in the food/travel industry. So people don't do it nor are they expected by the service provider. Now many HAL cruises do have a high percentage of Americans and Canadians, but I still think people will feel that the automatic payment is sufficient and generous. We personally do not do any extra tipping. But we make sure to mention outstanding crew members by name on the after-cruise questionnaire.

Can someone tell me how these proctored tests work if there are multiple people who need to be tested. For example, with us there will be 4 people who will need to be tested for our return flights. Basically is the test done in parallel among the people to be tested. They all do their swabs and then put their sample in the solution waiting the 15 minutes for the result and then you all get them at pretty much the same time. With this, the whole process would maybe take 30 minutes for all 4 people. Or is it serialized, so that one person does the swab, and waits for their result. And only then does the next person do the swab, etc. Just want to know if the total time for 4 people will be more like 30 minutes or 2 hours.

We had booked flights in FlightEase for flights to/from Venice for our cruise in August. For the last two months I always got an error message from Flight Ease. Our TA didn't show any record of the flights either. However, both airlines we are using did show the flights on their website. So about two weeks ago my wife called HAL. She got through within an hour by calling the minute they opened in the morning. The agent also could not find the flights at first, so she was on hold for quite a while the agent did research. Eventually, they found them and sent us an email confirmation. This is the first time we used FlightEase, and I am thoroughly disgusted with it. When it worked to make the initial reservations it was great, but after that the website is horrible. If it wasn't for the great discount we are getting on business class flights and the ability to cancel very late in these covid times, I would never use it again.

The last time we were in Ketchikan, about 10 years ago, we did the Misty Fjords float plane tour with Seawind Aviation. It was one of the most memorable shore adventures we have done on any cruise. The scenery was spectacular and we landed in a small lake surrounded by mountains. It was expensive, but well worth it.

@The-Inside-CabinBy any chance, do you have the audio art tours for the other HAL ships that you could upload? I went to web.archive.org and the audio files no longer seem to be there. I listened to the one you uploaded for Zuiderdam and it was really good...would like to have one for our next cruise on Oosterdam or other ships in the future. Thanks.

I never heard of a 3PM departure on embarkation day before. That is really early, with 4-5 PM more typical and sometimes later. For those who fly in on embarkation day, something we would never do, that could be a real problem. I'm wondering if HAL is choosing to leave ports earlier in the day so they can cruise at a slower speed overnight to save fuel.

@FlyingCruiser2Since you have been in the Pinnacle Suite post-covid, can you tell us if the extra perks were the same as pre-covid. For example, did you get free non-alcoholic drinks from the refrigerator in the suite? How about a behind-the-scene ship tour? In my prior post I didn't mention the extra attention from all the crew, and not just the concierges. If there is a waiting line in the MDR, and the maitre d' sees us waiting he will often pull us out of line, ahead of other guests and escort us to our reserved table (often the best table in the dining room). On most nights the restaurant manager or even the head chef will visit our table and ask how we like the food. In our suite, we have had visits from the hotel director checking if there is anything he can do for us. On one cruise, after we met the entertainment director on a private ship tour, every night in the theater he would ask us how we liked the show and tell us about the upcoming acts. Overall the personal service for Pinnacle Suite guests is quite amazing.

On our next cruise on embarkation day the ship leaves port at 7PM. We plan to get on the ship at noon, or as early as possible, drop our carry-on bags in our cabin and have lunch. Is it then possible to leave the ship and do some nearby sightseeing, probably on foot, and then return to the ship before she sails. I have never heard of people doing this, but we also never had a cruise that actually left this late in the evening. I could imagine HAL might not permit it since it would be confusing with people in the terminal doing initial check-in versus people returning to the ship that already had their key cards.