sanger727

Why are pants challenging? Because on a warm weather cruise, that is the only reason to bring long pants. My DH wears shorts all cruise, and it seems silly to have to bring long pants just for dinner. To be comfortable he wears his shorts all day, changes into pants for dinner, and then back into shorts for the rest of the evening. But we aren't rule breakers so we prefer to cruise on NCL where there is no dress code for dinner. IMO, long pants required for dinner is so outdated.

Nearly every tour I've taken in any place has included stops like these. Like you said, they advertise them as a demonstration or some other learning experience. It's worse on cruise tours, but not just on cruise tours. Discounting excursions for these stops would never happen, it's too common and there is too much money in it. What always surprises me are the number of people on the tour that really looking forward to these shopping stops and buy things everywhere we go. It's to the point where I assume everything that the cruise line offers is a money grab. the "port talks" are maps to shopping in the preferred stores. The "spa tours" or talks on acupuncture are just to sell treatments.

It really just depends on how picky you are about your wines and spirits. You can certainly get a glass of white wine and a spirit with mixer included in the classic package. We really didn't have any issue getting regular cocktails (non-specialty) within the classic package. They just used the included liquors. You can also pay a per drink upcharge if you go over $10. So, if you plan on having 2 $15 cocktails per day, it is still cheaper to pay per drink than upgrade.

People clearly have varied opinions about the pluses and minuses of using TAs. But as far as your original post. Yes, my experience is that very often TA's will advertise the cruise line's sales/promotions as their own. Some TA's will offer something above and beyond that - OBC, discounted price, free shore excursions; but you have to compare between the TA's promotions and the cruise lines promotions to see what, if anything, you are getting from the TA.

Before using this option, double check how soon before the flight the lounge will let you in. Many lounges limit you to 3 or 4 hours prior to flight time. Also, if you have checked luggage, you typically can't check that in until 3 or 4 hours pior to the flight time.

Can you still upgrade mid-cruise? On our last cruise we started with classic and decided we would wait on whether or not to upgrade. We had no problem enjoying most drinks with our package and paid a few upcharges for the martini bar. It was a lot less than upgrading packages.

I can't see your photos, but as long as it isn't something a drug dog would hit on, no one is going to question dry ingredients.

All you need to do is change passenger 2 in your parent's room to your wife. Keep passenger 1 on. Passenger 1 no shows. Now you have 2 rooms. You can get extra keeps and do sleeping arrangements however you want.

We did a third party tour there as well and it was one of my favorite stops. There were 6 people on our boat. We got there before any of the cruise line excursions and our guide helped us all feed, pet, and kiss the string rays.

I'm confused on whether these are NCL tours or private tours. If you are on a NCL tour you will meet on the ship and take the tender in together. No issues. If private, yeah, that first one is cutting it pretty close. If they advertise primarily to cruises, they may wait. but if they primarily have land tourists, you'll be out of luck.

We have used the messaging app and it's only ok. Nowhere near as reliable as SMS or imessage. But the price is significantly cheaper than paying for cell service or internet. Each person who wants to be able to message has to purchase the $10 package. It just goes phone to phone within the ship, doesn't communicate out to other people.

You don't need a tour for mykonos. We were perfectly capable of getting lost in the maze of alley ways on our own. 😉 Mykonos is very walkable, don't remember if you have to take a bus from the port into town, but you can do this experience on your own for a lot less money.

You would be better of posting these in the threads for individual ports.

It was several years ago, but we were able to do this onboard.

How often would somebody not have a working cc on day 1 but would have one on day 6? There's no reason to extend charging privileges to someone without a payment method. If they can't even pay gratuities, why allow them to have free drinks and spa treatments for a week?

Weird. In my plan a doctor is either in network or out of network. They couldn't care less where the doctor is or where I am.

Probably not. But there are plans that cover just medical. And they are significantly less expensive than comprehensive trip insurance. We got medical coverage for a $10,000+ trip. The cost for me was in the range of $50. Whereas full trip insurance would have been $400-$600.

Rome is also a city where most of your tours will be walking around cities. On caribbean cruises we mostly do water excursions; boat rides, snorkeling, beaches, etc. Yeah, you may want some shade if you are laying out on a beach, but there's usually a breeze near the ocean. This really depends on what you want to do. If you want to spend hours each day walking and sightseeing, then it may be too hot. But in October it's just as likely to be windy and stormy.

many of those wonderful meals have occurred while in a port stop on a cruise. Everyone can spend their port time how they like. But you can absolutely have a local meal in the confines of a port stop. For me it's quality over quantity. I'd rather stop at 1-2 places in a port and take my time than be running all over seeing several places.

Well, clearly you won't have a "proper Italian dinner" during a daytime excursion. But, I personally would miss out on souvenir shopping, and even a bit of sightseeing, to have a local lunch/snack. I've been all over the world; Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Italy, France, Greece, etc. I truly find the food in other countries to be part of the sightseeing experience itself. We had pad thai in a river market in Thailand, Matcha ice cream in japan, Kangaroo in Australia, etc.

the insurance offered by the cruise line is often not competitive in terms of price/coverage. Most people would suggest getting your own insurance.

I wonder if you contacted special needs - if they could have it onboard and the ship's medical center could refill mid cruise? Worth checking into.

veteran cruisers would tell you that they can make those changes and there is no compensation. If you complain enough they might send you 4 chocolate covered strawberries. That was our compensation for something that happened on one of our cruises. Agree, you would drive yourself nuts worrying about things outside of your ability to control. Plan your own excursions and pick companies that either accept payment upon arrival or will refund if the ship misses the port.

I can't say it's exactly 3 hours, but I've certainly gotten stuck sitting in airports when we tried to check in this far ahead of time. kwokpot is correct; there are limitations on when you can check in and you can't go to the airport lounge until you check in.

I think it would be more helpful to understand what you are really asking? Celebrity is a US based cruise line that markets primarily to the US and english speaking countries. The primary language on board is English. The primary food on board is usually based on American preferences. When I've cruised in and out of foreign ports, I notice more Europeans than Caribbean cruises, however, I wouldn't say that large majority of the cruisers are local to any port. But there will certainly be more Asian people on the cruise than anything you would find in the US. I've never been to Sinagpore, but when we went to Japan we were extremely impressed by the graciousness and politeness of the Japanese people.