dp203

On 11/28/2023 at 7:34 AM, themob said:

I sent a cancel request Oct,31,2021 and received this email yesterday

Dear Michael

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to follow up to inquire whether you have received your refund yet. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced due to the delay in processing your refund.

Over the past few weeks cause of the war in Palestine we have been inundated with a high volume of refund requests, totaling more than 1000 transactions. Unfortunately, this surge in refund requests overwhelmed our payment gateway, causing delays in the processing of refunds.

If you have already received your refund, please disregard this message. However, if you have not yet received it or have any questions or concerns regarding your refund, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

 I have not received refund

When did you cancel tour?

I canceled our tour on October 9th (as soon as we found out we were no longer going to Egypt). I would suggest starting a dispute with your credit card as I feel like that is the only way we will get our money back from Ramses. 

9 hours ago, sb4851 said:

I'm in the same situation.Only meaningless mails which do not allow to advance the refunding. Be careful with Ramses.

While I still have not received a refund, they did reach out again with all sorts of promises when I posted a negative review on TripAdvisor. They seem to take their reviews very seriously so it might make sense to post one there too and if enough people call out these bad practices, we may actually get a refund! 

I believe they are the same company or at least run by the same company. The excursions are exactly the same on each website. If you are booking with them I would recommend not paying anything in advance and securing the hotel on your own. I along with multiple other folks on my cruise have not received a penny back from Ramses when Celebrity re-routed our ship. 

Beware when booking a shore excursion with Ramses, their "guarantee" of not needing to pay until the end of the tour is not true. They required us to make a 40% deposit for an overnight shore excursion from Alexandria to Cairo. Unfortunately, our itinerary was changed and the ship no longer stopped in Egypt. While all of our other tour guides (including those in Israel) promptly issued refunds, Ramses has failed to refund us our deposit. I've booked numerous excursions with numerous tour companies over the years and have never had to write a bad review. However, my experience with Ramses has been so bad that I had to write this review to warn any future travelers. Any promises of satisfaction guaranteed and no need to pay if your itinerary changes are all not true. Consider any deposit paid to Ramses forfeited if your plans change. I would highly recommend looking for another tour guide that is much more trustworthy. 

@Lunastella thank you so much for your lovely and detailed review. How did your sister like the sofa bed? Contemplating booking a similar room for three adults and would love any thoughts on the sofa bed. Thank you! 

We were originally going to be in the Texas area in Oct. for other reasons so we thought we would just drive down to Houston from Dallas for the cruise but now our schedule has change so we will be flying into Houston. What is the best way to get from IAH to Galveston. I'm thinking we would fly in and travel to Galveston the day before embarkation. Are there shuttles or some sort of train service. I looked at Uber but that was shockingly expensive since it is such a distance.

I did this last month and we took an Uber. Ended up having no issues getting one. The trip was $67, which for two people ended up being cheaper than any of the shuttles.

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Thanks for this wonderful review. If you don’t mind sharing, what time was your flight out of Houston? Trying to plan my return trip and want to make sure on the timing of the flight. Thanks!

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One last picture of the future cruise certificate that was in our cabin upon arrival:

Attached are the last of the photos that I took around the ship. We thought the ship was in great shape overall. The color scheme in the cabins/hallways is definitely outdated and a little musty but that didn't stop us from having a fabulous time. We sailed this cruise mostly for the ports, which were great. We were lucky to have mostly sunny weather and maximized each day off the ship. Let me know if you have any questions. Bon voyage to the next group of cruisers!

Main dining room definitely looks like it has new carpets/chairs.

Splashaway Bay (older kids section):

Splashaway Bay (baby section):

Directory:

So is the old library gone?

 

 

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No, the old library is still there. That's where the books are. The new one just has games in it, no books.

Entryway into the library and card room:

The actual room (no one was in there):

New carpet being loaded onto the ship:

Sorry for all the fans of the cigar lounge but I checked it out today and it is gone. The card/game room is open. I will upload pictures later tonight. Also, today I noticed them bringing additional carpets on board and adding new carpets to some of the stores/public areas.

do you know if the cigar bar is still there?

I have not seen (or smelled) a cigar bar or any reference to it on the directories. The smoking sections in the compass are listed as the casino, outer deck on 4 (port side), and pool deck (port side).

Thanks for the info!

 

 

 

Can anyone verify what specialty (pay) restaurants are currently available? Pretty bummed that Chops won't be available for our cruise at the end of January....

Giovanni's table, chef's table, and Johnny Rockets are the only pay restaurants that are currently available.

Do you see or hear any active work on the unfinished projects?

We haven't heard anything though we have an aft room so we are pretty far removed. We haven't seen any signs of active projects around the ship.

dp203,

Would you be so kind to let us know what the current regular dining room menus are (maybe take some pictures if you are able?) I'm getting conflicting stories as to what the menus are. No need to post them while you are on your cruise as we are not cruising until next month.

 

Thank you so much! Enjoy your cruise!!

 

Paul

We haven't actually eaten in the main dining room (too tired from the sun) but I did snap these pics from the electronic directory of what I assume was tonight's dinner. Not sure if this was the actual menu though.

Thanks for taking the time to post. If you have a moment (or anyone else onboard) can you tell me if they added a diaper friendly kid pool to the splashaway area?

 

Thanks in advance!

There is. Splash away bay is split into two little areas. One with a slide for bigger kids and then a small kiddie pool with a small slide for kids in diapers.

I'll try to take a better picture of the area tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time to share your pictures with us. Can you find out when is Chop's opening?? We have two cruises on the Adventure booked, NYE and another one in June to celebrate my daughters high school graduation with a group of her friends. I appreciate all the pictures and updates. Happy cruising!:)

I asked at Guest Services and they said March/April for Chops opening. Hope that it is done faster for your NYE cruise!

I just wanted to say, thank you very much for the pics and posts. Should we ever sail together, one drink on me.

You are very welcome!

Can someone onboard please post the terms and conditions for using the 25% credit? I've heard it has to be used within a year, and can't be used on holiday sailings.

Not going to post a photo since they have been coming out terrible from my phone but we received a letter in our stateroom on the first day, apologizing and offering the future cruise credit. Details are 25% off based on your cruise date paid. No details on when you need to use it but it does say that the certificate can be combined with regular promotions for significant savings.

Thanks for the photos!

 

 

 

What cabin were you in?

 

 

 

BonVoyage

 

Dawna

9392. Great balcony: breezy but no soot. Some vibration when docking/pulling away.

Nice to see what I assume are new mesh chairs.

From my view of the AFT balconies, all of the non-suites have the mesh chairs. It looks like the suites have the wicker looking chairs with the thick pads. Pool deck has the old ribbon chairs. Solarium has the mesh chairs and the padded chairs with the red pads. There is a group of the striped beach chairs by splash away bay with a few umbrellas as well.

Thanks, that might be enough. The Freedom class has 4 in the WJ, 2 on each side and 2 on the Promenade and that seemed good for that size of ship. Although you would have to go all the way through the WJ to get to it? It's been 7 years since I've been on a Voyager class. Jewel has a Freestyle in the back, but there is a door there you can come in the back and not have to walk all the way through.

I haven't seen ones in the front of the WJ but I will double check. You do need to go through the WJ to get to the ones in the back and it's a bit of weaving in and out as there seems to be a propensity for people to start a big line at the front of the WJ.

Last but not least, the only two story putt putt at sea (sort of underwhelming):

"Rules" for the slides:

Pool deck from the Sky Bar:

Giovanni's Table Menus:

Chops Framework outside of the Schooner Bar: