Corfe Mixture

But...but...but... Are you saying the US government has "issues"? How can this be??? Oh, wait. Never mind. :rolleyes:

Superb. [emoji108]🤣[emoji23]

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What amazes me is that countries that wish to attract tourist spending actually discourage tourism be making it difficult, costly and time consuming to obtain ....

What amazes the rest of us is that the citizens of USA don't understand that their Government makes it difficult, costly and time consuming for the rest of us to obtain permission to visit the USA. and that the reason these countries impose these charges on US citizens and not citizens of other countries is nothing more than a 'quid pro quoi'

In other words you reap what you sow!

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The Brazilian visa was required for all US pax and other citizens.

Not quite correct. British citizens do not require a Visa to visit Brazil for up to 90 days but our passports have to be valid for 6 months.

We also do not require a Visa to visit Argentina for up to 90 days. Again our passports must be valid for 6 months, but we must also be able to offer proof, if requested, of onward travel arrangements

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Deleted. Just realised I quoted a post which is over 12 months old

kmorg1234 gets what she puts up with.

Each to his/her own opinion. Personally, I think that most people on this thread have been,very impressed by the OP's commitment to her children's happiness.

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If you are a 'suite' passenger, then, if you go for Sun, take a mid ship mini-suite. Layout similar to midship full suites on other ships and avoids the significant movement at the back of the ship in Tasman Sea.

If you are also Elite, then given there is no Sabatini's suite breakfast (served in cabin on Sun), no advantage in taking a suite.

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rpennucci@princesscruises.com

Well it was in 2015 when I last organised a Meet 'n' Greet on Island. Her first name is Rosanne.

Not sure of her phone number, as I prefer to use email which gets me a confirmation.

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I rather suspect that very few of us really understand the significance of the $50.

Instead of coming clean and changing itineraries in a timely manner, Princess are continuing to advertise and sell cruises which they well know they cannot deliver.

They are doing so with the deliberate intention of subsequently hiding behind their contractual conditions in any legal dispute.

And now for the rub. By accepting and spending the $50 OBC compensation, passengers will be, de facto, agreeing to accept the change of itinerary and will not be able to seek any other redress.

Now you see the real reason why they are offering $50 OBC.

It is not, as some have suggested not necessary, because the contractual conditions already allow them to change the itinerary. It is, I suspect, actually very necessary, from Princess's point of view, as it is a cheap way of undermining folks ability to raise the issue of the delay in communicating the change of itinerary.

FWIW. Not relevant to me as I had my flights booked and was committed before the fault occurred. But if you booked an affected cruise after the fault occurred and, importantly, after Princess became aware of the need to change your itinerary, accepting the $50 is probably highly significant.

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..... maybe I'm missing something.

I did say that I was not a marine engineer and would defer to your knowledge about whether or not twelve months was a reasonable delay, but looking at the contractual aspects, I would point out that, if as I accept, you are correct about lead times, then for some months, they appear to have been continuing to sell cruises in the knowledge that they could not sail the advertised itinerary.

On the subject of lead times and ransom prices, I do understand your point but would also add the subject of quality.

In my experience, throne thing every project manager learns early in their career is the 'Cheap, Good, Quick' rule.

Namely:

You can have it cheap,but it won't be good and it won't be quick.

You can have it good, but it won't be quick and it won't be cheap.

Or you can have it quick and it won't be good and it won't be cheap!

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My DH and I are booked on the May 1,2018 sailing on the Caribbean Princess for a 10 day Eastern Caribbean cruise.

We were just informed today by e mail that the ship will not be going to Barbados because of propulsion issues.

This is now getting the point of being unacceptable.

I appreciate the professional contributions explaining that parts for these vessels are not 'off the shelf' and, as they are manufactured specially, there is an inherent lead time in sourcing the replacement parts, but this problem is now going to be over twelve months in the fixing.

THIS CANNOT BE SIMPLY DOWN TO LEAD TIME OF THE REPLACEMENT PART.

I'm beginning to wonder whether or not it requires a complete generator replacement, which I suspect would require a hole to be cut in the side of the ship which would require a major dry-docking. So, given Caribbean Princess has only recently had a re-fit, I'm now wondering whether or not they will just re-work all the future schedules in the next brochure and then live with problem for the next couple of years until the next scheduled dry-docking.

Clearly, I do not have professional knowledge of the industry, but we do have contributors who do have excellent knowledge. Perhaps they would like to comment on this perception / hypothesis.

Exactly, ... That is why we try and pick a late port day.

That's exactly what we have done on Caribbean Princess this Christmas when, although we have aft facing balcony, we have we booked, and pre-paid, for St Thomas and Curacao because they both have a 10pm departure time.

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nice but highly over-rated..spend your $$ on one of the specialty restaurants

Totally disagree. My view is why would anyone go to a speciality restaurant when you can get so much more for almost the same price, particularly if you have a (wind free) aft facing balcony.

Each to his own, but my arithmetic goes like this:

Crown Grill $29 per person (plus $10 if you want surf 'n' turf) =$58 min or $78 max

Bottle of wine included to value of $32 in UBD deal (in lieu of half bottle of champagne) gives equivalent price if purchased in Crown Grill of min $90, max $110.

UBD is $100 per couple, inc surf 'n' turf (if you want it), and you get so much more than just the food and wine.

IMHO, assuming neither of you want surf 'n' turf, the extras (cocktail, photo, SERVICE) more than justify the additional $5 per person, over the cost of Crown Grill plus wine.

You can book in advance and choose your date. Go to your cruise personalizer, then Onboard reservations, then Culinary Delights and scroll down to Ultimate Balcony Dinner or Breakfast..

You can pre-book your date but not the time, which has to be agreed once on board. Apparently they only do a maximum of four each evening, two at 6pm and two at 8pm.

I think that the reason one may not be able to book a time is that suite passengers have some 'priority', but only with respect to timing. So, if you pre-book and select your evening, you won't be bumped from the evening for a later booking suite passenger, but you will probably not be contacted to discuss your booking time etc., until they have first contacted any suite passengers taking UBD on the same evening.

We are next cruising in December, when sunset will be around 5.45 most evenings (except when the port's local time zone is out of position for its longitude).

We will, however, go for 8pm (and have a gin and tonic - at sunset) as we have deliberately selected days when our scheduled departure time is 10pm.

I think americans process info very well, they cut through BS in most news.

QED

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it's not the messengers that are the problem but how people in the US process the information they receive:

Google Robert Leroy Mercer for an interesting insight in the problem of how people in the US process the information they receive.

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A 7-year-old Australian boy is still missing. He was there with his mother who is badly injured and in hospital. The young boy's father is flying from Australia to be with his wife and try to find his son. Please say a prayer for this young boy and his family (if it is within your beliefs). If it isn't, please just wish them well.

Most definitely in all our thoughts.

All very strange, as he thankfully doesn't appear to among the injured or dead.

Hopefully he is walking around traumatised after seeing his mother injured in such a horrific, but that he still safe although very vulnerable particularly as he is in a foreign country and probably doesn't speak the language.

Hopefully better news today.

Sadly Some places in Spain are very anti tourist at the moment.

I rather suspect that is because, whilst tourists are good for the economy, in places not entirely dependent on tourism (and that would include Barcelona - where the photograph was taken), too many tourists results in a adverse effect on the lives of ordinary citizens who have no connection to the tourist industry and the increasing size of cruise ships simply exacerbates the problem.

Before we cruised we used to take beach holidays in the Caribbean, and everyone was always very much aware of the fact that cruise ships passengers took over the islands for just a few hours during which time the whole character of the island changed before returning to normal as soon as the 'cruise ship invasion' ended.

Similarly, although cruise ships are very welcome in Southampton, this weekend there are TEN cruise ships in the port, with 55,000 people arriving and departing, and because there is also a soccer match, attended by over 30,000, local residents, most of whom have no connection to the cruise industry, have been warned about the risk of congestion in the town.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-40974792

I stress that no-one in Southampton appears to be complaining about this as people appreciate the contribution to the local economy. The article is not anti-cruise ship, and is nothing more than advisory information for local residents about increased difficulty of getting around town this weekend, but it does highlight the fact that lots of tourists do have an adverse impact on the lives of ordinary local residents.

You are ALL CORRECT. If you log on, it shows all posts with a time stamp which is correct for YOUR TIME zone, but does not correct for DST, (There is an option to automatically adjust for DST, but it doesn't seem to work), so I see the original post as having been made at being made at 3.37pm.

I am currently in France and posted this at 6.29pm, when it was 5.29pm in the UK, but I am seeing a time stamp of 4.29pm as France is one hour ahead of the UK and both the UK and France are on DST.

If I do not log on when I visit the site, all posts are showing with a US time zone stamp, but I can't remember which zone.

Personally, it doesn't worry me, as I am more interested in the time difference between posts, but if it worries anyone, as others have said, they can fix it in EDIT OPTIONS in the USER CONTROL PANEL, but you will need to change it twice a year!

Not the same. While airlines check passports to verify you'll be admissible to your destination country and further ID checks are conducted while going though security, there is no border control checkpoint or checking of passports by "UK Visas and Immigration", the part of the UK government responsible for controlling entry and exit to and from the country.

 

In contrast, when you depart the Schengen area, you'll have the same checks by your airline and at security but you also go through a border control checkpoint where your passport is scanned and stamped.

 

BTW, I am retired from an airline and did a station visit (meeting with my airline's management there) to Heathrow less than two years ago that included going behind the scenes (and did the same last year at Frankfurt and Brussels so saw first-hand how the Schengen checks work, particularly as I had to be escorted past border control into the non-Schengen area of the airport as a working visiting employee who was not actually departing).

OK, if you insist BUT I don't think you are anywhere near correct as far as the UK Border control is concerned, which was the supplementary question I was answering.

You may have visited behind the scenes, but do you really think they would disclose their security procedures to a visiting foreign national?

I will defer to your inside knowledge, but let me assure everyone who is worried about their departure being recorded that, whilst I do not see an one of their officers when I leave the UK, when I return, Border control (Visas and Immigration never did this physically man the borders - they focus on making decisions on Visas, not policing the borders, certainly know when I left, which I think is what was concerning people who's passport didn't get stamped on departure.

The issues are at Schengen border points. The UK (including Heathrow) is not in the Schengen area. Also, the last time I was at Heathrow (1.5 years ago), no exit passport checks are conducted in the UK.

 

 

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I'm British, live in the U.K. And my passport is always checked when I leave either by ferry of by air. We just do it efficiently! When was the last time you

a) checked in at Heathrow and didn't have to show your passport?

and then

b) didn't have to show your boarding pass and passport as you went through security to go airside.

Answer: Never.

Hardly noticeable, but it is done. You can't get a boarding pass unless the passport presented is in the same name as the booking (and make sure the first forename on the booking matches the first forename on your passport) and you can't get airside unless you have a boarding pass which matches your passport.

As I say it happens, your departure is recorded. It is done discretely. You just haven't noticed it happening.

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No problem. Now at airport (Rennes) two hours before departure of flight to Southampton and they haven't even opened check-in yet!!

Also FWIW, we have a flight LHR-MIA in December with an 11h departure. We will stay at airport hotel on Bath Road the night before (simply because we have to take car to long term car park, and dropping it off the evening before is easier than driving up on the morning) and we will leave the hotel to go to airport around 8h30 (2h30 before departure) BUT we are only going that early so that we will have time for breakfast in the lounge, otherwise we would probably not leave hotel until around 9am.

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Does it include Heathrow? Just curious as I have a flight back next month.

Personally I think that these reports of delays on departure are a convenient excuse for inefficiency at peak times.

Our experience is of few delays on departure but of increased checks on arrival in France, but even that is inconsistent and my wife had hardly any delay at La Rochelle whilst a friend (who is always the last to get off the aircraft took about 20mins to get to the front of the line at Rennes.

Also to put this into context, it is now 09h15 here and I am about to drive 120km to an airport in France for a 13h flight and I can find time to type this reply.

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But you want that Schengen exit stamp - it's your proof that you didn't overstay. If you have an entrance stamp and no exit stamp, they will assume you've been in the Schengen zone continuously unless you can prove by other means when you left.

I think with modern technology, they know without the need for a stamp in your passport.

We do not currently get our passports stamped and I sail around France all summer. When I cross to France on the ferry, my yacht lives in France all year, my passport is scanned at UK check in for the ferry and I get nothing more than a visual check as I leave the ferry.

As my yacht is British flagged, I very occasionally, perhaps once every couple of years, get visited by customs officers who, as part of their inspection, check the passports of all the crew.

When they visit me, one of the inspection team remains on the pontoon with a laptop and they hand the passports to him and, although our passports have no stamps, he appears to have access to records of when we all entered the country. Presumably from manifest data submitted by the ferry company.

So I would not worry too much about stamps in your passport. They will almost certainly have a complete record of when you entered and left the zone.

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Wow, I think this response is a little harsh!

 

I am only trying to make sense of a confusing situation. Sorry if I hit a nerve....

Nope you didn't hit a nerve.

It just amused me when you introduced the word harsh without first climbing over the fence and considering how the US treats visitors.

Sorry if my reply offended.

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That seems a bit harsh :confused:

It may seem harsh to you, but, whilst we are not talking about Schengen, consider this:

1. US citizens can visit the UK for 180 days without a visa. We do not charge you.

Reference: https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/usa/tourism

2. UK citizens can visit the US for 90 days. Your government makes us pay a fee.

Reference: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fact_sheet_esta_4.pdf

Why do you think that is harsh on US citizens?

OK, the UK is different from Schengen, but the moral is that Rules are not all the same and Life is not always fair; so don't complain about other people's rules without first looking in the mirror.