belkin

Would be interesting to know what Sandra has to say about this.  There is a Facebook group dedicated to issues people have had with her tours. Apparently, she deletes any negative comments and then blocks the people from her page.  The name of the group is Sandra O'Leary Service Issues.

On 3/18/2023 at 7:42 PM, cruising forever said:

Hi from South Carolina (he's from Denver) ~ we booked this a few weeks ago; got our Cove balcony and intend to keep it; love those 😉   Still struggling with Barcelona hotel (wanted near Las Ramblas) and excursions, but imagine it will come together eventually.   Any tours still have openings?  Details?

 

Our first Transatlantic (currently on a 35 day cruise in the South Pacific), but been to Barcelona 3 times already and love it there!

Hi there from sunny Florida (currently working in Orgeon,...brr!)

I booked 2 tours with Spain Day Tours.  In Lisbon it is the 1/2 day tour to Fatima for 69 euros.  The other tour is from the Malaga port going to Alhambra and Granada.  The tour price is 79 euros plus 20 for entry into Alhambra. Their website is www.spaindaytours.com Both tours have several people from the ship going.

In Halifax we booked a tour with Halifax Titanic Historical Tours.  It is a small group with max of 10 people.  It is a 6 hour tour and the price is $115 UDS. We are going to tour historic Halifax, Dartmouth and Fisherman's Cove.  The website is www.halifaxtitanictours.ca

Enjoy your time in the South Pacific. 

Mary

Hello,

We just got back yesterday from a cruise on the Paradise yesterday and are leaving tomorrow for Arizona for a couple of weeks.  Busy, busy trying to get as much done as I can as I know how fast the time will go.

Updated tour info:

We booked with Spain Day Tours for Lisbon and Malaga.  In Lisbon we are doing the tour to Fatima and in Malaga we are doing Alhambra. The tour to Fatima has met the minimum requirement of 14 people so it is a go! The max is 18 so there may be a few spots left.

As for Malaga/Alhambra we have 9 people signed up and still need 5 more to make it a go.  This tour is 79 euros plus 20 euros for entrance tickets.  Carnival has the same tour for $164.99.  Our group will be small with the minimum number of 14 people and max of 18.  If you are interested, please see the tour description at www.spaindaytours.com and fill out the booking form to join the tour.  

If you have any questions, please let me know, Mary Johnson

43 minutes ago, RoadTravelled said:

 

Mary, this looks like a great small-group tour at a reasonable price.  Do keep us abreast of your experience.  We are actually on this ship on the Sep. 16th sailing that stops here as well.  Thanks for your feedback!

I will try and remember to come back and post about the experience. 

Just wanted to share a tour I found and booked for Halifax.  We booked with Halifax Titanic Historical Tours.   The Halifax Titanic Historical Tour is a 6-hour tour of historic Halifax, Dartmouth and Fishman's Cove in the Eastern Passage. Fisherman's Cove is a 200-year-old quaint authentic fishing village.  They only take 10 people which is nice and we have already met the minimum number of people for the group.   Mary

15 minutes ago, RoadTravelled said:

 

We used Spain Day Tours on the Celebration TA as well and also highly recommend them (see post above).  We might have been on one of the same tours!

We probably were.  We used them in Vigo, Tenerife and La Coruna.  Had a great time.

Hi everybody, I have been busy working on getting all of our excursions booked this week because we have a busy spring coming up and I don't want to scramble around at the last minute.

We were on the Carnival Celebration TA and used Spain Day Tours for some of our ports.  They did a great job, so we are looking at booking them again for Malaga and Lisbon. 

For Malaga we are going to do the full day tour to Alhambra and Granada.  The price is 79 euros per person.  They require a minimum of 14 people (max 18) so I am hoping that we get enough people.  We are a group of 4 so we only need 10 more.

In Lisbon we signed up for the half day tour to Fatima for 65 euros.  Here is part of the description. 

Join the thousands of pilgrims that visit the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, see the castle and wall of Obidos, and discover one of the most popular seaside resorts in the Silver Coast (Costa da Prata).  Join us for the half day excursion to Fatima only (6 hours), or the full day shore excursion to Fatima, Obidos, and Nazare (8-9 hours).  Again, there needs to be 14 participants for the trip to be a go. Min is 14 and max is 18.

They get 5 stars on Trip Advisor with 927 reviews.

You can check them out at www.spaindaytours.com

We seen this cruise while on the Celebration TA and I put a hold on it.  Just go home yesterday so I called our PVP today to pay the deposit and make it official. 

No decisions yet for air or hotel.  I did look at Fly2fun and it was about $900 ouch!! We only paid $350 for the one way to London to get on the Celebration. 

Now time to start planning.

5 hours ago, rljan said:

Viator or Toursbylocals.

I will give it a try.

9 hours ago, skurvish said:

Try toursbylocals and also post in your roll call to see if others have arranged anything.

I will check it out.  Nothing on the roll call yet but hopefully there will be soon.  I will try and get things firmed up once we get back from out TA on the Celebration.

Hello,

We are booked on a cruise next September with some stops in Japan and I am struggling with finding tours. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

The ports are Kushiro, Aomori, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

We also have stops in Puerto Princesa, Philippines and Bitung, Indonesia.

Thanks,

Mary

10 hours ago, sfjakey said:

Any suggestion for pre-cruise hotel in Seattle and best way to port from the airport (SEA)? Thanks, Frank

We are most likely going to stay at the Crown Plaza at the airport which I already have booked. We are planning on taking a taxi to port.  I have spent several months working in Seattle over the last couple of years and don't have much desire to see the downtown area as it has really gone downhill in my opinion.

We are booked on this cruise and really looking forward to seeing new ports.  We just got back from a 6-week trip to Europe and cruising on the Carnival Pride.  I haven't had a chance to look at any of the ports yet as I am still trying to put together tours for the TA on the Celebration that is less than 2 months away. I usually have out tours figured out months in advance. YIKES!

We like to go on private tours so hoping there are some good ones out there.  If not, we will book with Carnival.

We will be going to Sydney after the cruise.  Not sure for how long yet but no less than 4 days.  Then the plan is to fly to Hawaii to break up the trip since we are from Florida.

We are Clark and Mary from Fort Myers, Florida

6 hours ago, tandemcruzr said:

Not true. The no-show's cruise fare is kept by the cruise. Tips, port fees will be refunded to the the no-show.

 

I am in the same situation.  I called Carnival and it is just as you have stated. Carnival keeps the cruise fare as we are past final payment and it is considered non refundable.  Port fees will be refunded to the card they were charged on. 

26 minutes ago, canes20 said:

Do you already see the $600 OBC on the booking confirmation. You may only get $300 and your husband will have $300 the next time he goes on a cruise.

I see the entire $600 

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this.  My hubby and I had a cruise cancelled and received the $600 OBC for the cancelled cruise.

I booked a cruise with a girlfriend and had the OBC applied.  Will I get all of the $600 or will it be split between me and my friend? 

We have a cruise from Seattle to Tokyo with airfare on hold.

We have never sailed with NCL so have no idea how the air works.

We would like to stay in Tokyo for a week post cruise, is this possible?

I agree with other posters, I think you are far enough away not hear hear too much noise from the lobby.  I think you might enjoy the location.  Close to the bar for a drink and easy to step outside for some air.  Not sure though how much noise you may hear from the show lounge.  I would think that would only be a problem if you go to bed early.

3 hours ago, Cruisesfun65 said:

 

Now try and make a new booking for that cruise and go all the way to where you need to insert guest names. Error message. I tell you, not 1 sailing available to book.

Carnival is giving the same explanation. All cruises are sold out. 

Yeah right. They suddenly all sold out in 1 day.

I agree this is the same thing that happened to my b2b.  Just because a cruise is in your manager doesn't mean it hasn't been cancelled.   I have 3 cruises still showing in my manager.  One on the Radiance that was cancelled back in March and 2 Fascination cruises that were recently cancelled.

1 hour ago, Purvis1231 said:

Booking for the Fantasy now closed. 

I am seeing the same thing for the Fascination.  We are booked on her for a b2b in January.

I would probably take the upgrade for the added square feet and extra space.  There are pictures of 1212 on cruise deck plans that you can look at to help you decide.   Cabin 1212 is 160sf and 1441 is 220sf

We plan on using Lyft.  There is a lot of information about this on the west coast departures board.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/315-west-coast-departures/

Our Empress deck cabin was  close to the Atrium and I could hear too much noise from performers.

Deck 14 was quite with easy access to the Lido deck.  We had cabin G2 which was awesome.

We stayed on deck 14 and deck 7 on the Paradise.  We liked 14 so much we have it booked again for next January.

We just did an 8 day 8/18/18 to 8/26/18. They had 3 movie days in the Queen Mary Lounge. Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther and 1 day they played Book Club and Pitch Perfect.