Losingcontrol36

We are trying to book a table for (14) people on a Princess cruise.  The app will not let us.  We contacted Princess in an attempt to get this problem fixed and have not had any sucess.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

The VeriFLY app is difficult to use.  We have sailed on Celebrity, Royal, Princess and Azamara since the end of the pandemic.  The VeriFLY app was the most difficult to use.  Hopefully, Holland will get this fixed.  I wish they would get their instructions co-ordinated.  Holland instructions told us that we would not need COVID vacination information.  VeriFLY wanted us to download a portion of our COVID card data.

Embarkation chaos at LGA.  Waiting hours to get transfer to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  According to Princess rep, they don’t have busses!  We should have taken a cab.  What a cluster!

My wife and I stayed at the following hotel after a TA cruise in 2018:

Ibsens Hotel, Vendersgade 23, 1363 København K - tel. +45 3313 1913

We are seniors and this hotel was within walking distance of Tivoli Gardens.  

FYI.  We were told that locals go to Tivoli Gardens for dinner and that if we return to Copenhagen, we should go there.

There was a decent restaurant next to hotel.

We took a cab from the cruise ship to the hotel.

We would go to the hotel again.

We are not on boat.  Your explanation sounds reasonable. 

We just returned from a cruise with Oceania.  We went on this cruise with another couple and we had adjoining balcony cabins.

When we asked Oceania personal to open the balcony partition, we were told that they could not do that because of maritime regulations.

We have been on Princess and Azamara cruises, and have requested that the partition between our cabin balconies to be opened, and they complied with our request.

We enjoy sharing coffee or drinks on the balcony with our friends.  This year, we went on a Princess cruise with five other couples and we had all of our balcony partitions opened.

We also saw a Viking cruise ship with opened balcony partitions.  

I am trying to get information about opening balcony partitions.

We do not know if this is a legitimate concern, or did Oceania not want to be bothered.

We would like to know about the rules on other cruise lines.

We will be on the Regal Princess that leaves Fort Lauderdale on 15 April.

We did not see any Princess shore excursions for when we are in Cherbourg. We decided to book a Normandy tour with Bayeux Shuttle.

We did not see any Princess shore excursions that we liked while we are in Rotterdam. We are considering taking the express train to Amsterdam and doing our own tour. We have been to the tulip gardens and Delft, so we really don't want to return. We also might try to find a tour guide that would pick us up from the ship.

We have only been on Princess on an Alaskan cruise. I wore dockers and a long sleeve dress shirt for the formal dining night. I don't remember any tuxes and evening gowns.

We really enjoyed the Princess shore excursions that we took on our Alaskan cruise. I wish Princess would provide better shore excursions for our European cruise.

We are considering going on a Princess Cruise to the Caribbean next year. We went on a Princess Cruise to Alaska in 2016 and we enjoyed it. The only issue we have is with the set menu in the main dining room. On other cruises we have taken, the cruise line offered chicken, fish and steak for dinner, and other optional entrees. On the Princess Cruise that we took, they offered chicken, fish and ground round. This was not a problem with us, because we chose the other entrees.

Can anyone tell me what the set menu is on Princess Cruises to the Caribbean?

We were in Marseille on a RCL cruise. Our cruise ship docked at the far end of the Marseille pier. I think it would have been a good long walk to find public transportation. I don't remember any taxi's when we got off the ship.

I agree with the recommendation to purchase the Rick Steves "Mediterranean Cruise Ports" guide.

We took the RCL excursion to Cassis. The tour bus stopped at Cap Canaille for about a 1/2 hour so we could take photos. This stop was not in the RCL excursion description. Cassis is a great little village. If the weather is nice, take a boat ride to the calanques. They are supposed to be spectacular. We did not go due to weather concerns.

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Thanks for your review.

We will be boarding the Coral Princess on 27 August in Whittier. We will be staying at the Captain Cook in Anchorage.

One of my major complaints about most cruise lines is that they will not provide transfer information to the customers. Princess instructs customers to get transfer information from their representative at the Anchorage airport. I wish they would provide a map with "who-what-when-where and how".

In October 2015, I went on a Mediterranean cruise on the Royal Caribbean ship "Allure of the Seas" and purchased a Tag Heuer wristwatch from Regalia Fine Jeweler. We were required to pay a VAT tax of $491.40. Regalia Jewelers assured us that we would receive a partial refund of the Vat tax amounting to $368.21 by submitting our receipt to US Customs at the airport in Detroit, MI.

While going thru US Customs in Detroit, MI we presented the receipt and all the required paperwork to get our refund. The Customs officials told us that they don’t give refunds of the VAT tax from foreign countries. The officer placed the US Customs stamp on the receipt and told us to submit it to the Global Refund officials in Madrid Spain.

Regalia Jewelers had also provided the forms and the Madrid address to submit our refund request by mail if we chose to do so. We sent all the required documentation to the address in Madrid Spain by registered mail on Oct. 22, 2015.

In Jan 2016 we still hadn’t received our VAT refund so I contacted Royal Caribbean to see if they could help us get the refund. They told me that Regalia Fine Jewelers is an independent jewelry company and that Royal Caribbean has no control over their sales or taxation process and that they would not help us.

The point of my writing this review is to alert future cruisers on Royal Caribbean ships that this cruise line takes no responsibility for purchases made from the shipboard stores and you would probably be better off to make your purchases on land in the ports you are visiting. The stores at the ports that we have frequented have been reputable companies that stand behind their products.

Try this link:

[https://youtu.be/pcHIB1yG3cw][/YOUTUBE]

Sorry, I am old and not very good with cyberspace.

We will be in La Spezia on 14 October. We have arranged for a tour and are trying to co-ordinate a meeting point location. We can not find any information about the port. Is there a passenger terminal similar to other ports? Many posts claim that the train station is a 20 minute walk (or about one mile or 1.6 k) from the port, but this information looks suspect. Can anyone give us any information about the La Spezia port?

We have been to Venice once. We used the Alilaguna water bus to get from the Marco Polo airport to San Marco. Boat dock is a short walk from the airport. From what I remember, the walkway was covered. You can buy tickets inside the airport or at the ticket booth by the dock. Cost is 13 euro. There was room for luggage and it was easy to load on the boat. Using the Alilaguana water bus was very easy and we didn't have any problems.

Regarding using a water taxi, it might be a problem to load and unload luggage from a smaller boat.

It would be a good idea to contact your hotel and ask them the easiest way to get to their establishment.

Reply to deise 17311:

The Avalon cruise we went on was our first river cruise, so we can not compare it to other river cruise lines.

Compared to "conventional" cruises:

Customers were not "nickel-dimed" with optional activities that you would have to pay for.

Alcohol is cheaper in the bar.

Beer and Wine is included at dinner. You were not limited to one or two classes.

Better staff to customer ratios

Regarding food, we have had more choices on conventional cruises. We thought the food was good, but we are not "foodies".

We would go on Avalon again. However, some Viking ships have better balconies.

We took an Avalon river cruise in late April from Basel. Avalon could not tell us where their ship was going to be docked in Basel. We decided to use the Avalon shuttle from the Movenpick Hotel next to the Zurich airport. I think the shuttle bus driver that Avalon used got lost in Basel. We crossed the Rhine River three times before we were dropped off at our ship.

Basel looks like a very interesting city and I wish we could have spent some time there. While the Movenpick at the Zurich airport is nice, it is an airport hotel. I wish we could have spent some time in Basel.

If you are confident that your cruise line will tell you where the boat will be docked in Basel, I would use a cab. Avalon really made it difficult to get to the boat without using their transfer.

YoungDubFan,

Thank you for your great review. It helped eliminate many of the questions we had about the schedule of our upcoming cruise.

Regards,

Losingcontrol36

We are first time river cruisers and are going on an Avalon cruise down the Rhine River in April. One of the issues we are having is that Avalon will not provide a schedule until two weeks before we depart. I would like a schedule so that we can plan some activities. Can anyone who has taken the Avalon Basel to Amsterdam river cruise provide us with a rough schedule? Do you have any recommendations on Avalon shore excursions? We will be visiting Strasbourg, Speyer/Heidelberg, Mainz, Rudesheim, Koblenz and Cologne.

We took a KD boat in May 2011 from Bacharach to St Goar and the Rhine River water levels were low.