BillandChristy

3 hours ago, petra75 said:

Hi! 

Yes, tours by bus take a maximum of 20-25 people now. As usual you can use every other seat unless you're members of the same family-reservation, even so you should be sure social distancing is respected.

We just arrived from an excursion by bus anyway, I'll describe it in one of the next posts of Costa Smeralda live. 

Thanks very much. Good to know how they handle that. 

Bill

Hi Petra, like others I appreciate you taking the time to document your experiences. I know you only did a walking tour, but do you know how bus tours were handled? My specific questions has to do with capacity reductions. For example, if a tour on a bus normally had 50 people, did they reduce it to a smaller number (for example 25 people) to allow for social distancing?

Thanks, Bill

44 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

It varies by cruise but is usually indicated as just before muster call.   When in Yokohama we were planning a tour to Tokyo on turn around day.    I asked the MCC Concierge and he got approval for me to arrive back 1 hour before sail time as opposed to 2 hours before.  He said I would be required to do a make up session of the safety drill.    Ended up not an issue as we were hit by a typhoon and evacuated from the ship.

 

 

Thanks Jim

10 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

 

We spend 60 to 90 days a year on Celebrity ships, and almost always do B2B or B2B2B series, with the occasional B2B2B2B.  On B2B2Bs we've periodically experienced different turnaround day procedures between legs 2 and 3.  Really depends on several factors.  If CC search function is up and working you can easily find a number of descriptions of the process, but remember the process can vary.

 

Before the turnaround day a succinct instruction letter will be distributed outlining the process. There will be an option if you decide to stay onboard and another if you decide to leave the ship for the day.  But everyone will receive a transit card to bypass the craziness in the terminal on embarkation.  There is always a pier coordinator's desk which is what Jim is referencing as a supervisor's desk.  Celebrity generally wants everyone who plans to leave the ship be physically off the ship by 9:00 to 9:30 AM as the gangway is generally closed until embarkation starts for the new passengers joining the ship.  As soon as self-disembarkation starts folks who want to leave for the day generally can do so.  Celebrity expects B2B passengers to again attend the muster drill, so folks leaving for the day should be back prior to the muster drill if they want to avoid the make-up drill.

 

Hope this helps with your confusion.

 

 

Yes, that helps. What time is the muster drill held (relative to departure time) on an embarkation day? 

Thanks, Bill

8 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I've done a number of B2B's and most of the time the procedure is fairly similar.    They usually have a B2B meeting about 2 days before turn around day.   They will go over the process with you as well as give you a letter outlining the procedure.   Sometimes they have a raffle during the meeting and give away Free Specialty Dining Certificate, bottles of wine, free laundry etc.   nice touch.    

 

At the meeting you are given a Transit Pass.    There can be two different processes depending if on a European cruise where the ship remains in the EC and they do not have to customs clear the ship and passengers.   On the European cruises on turn around day If you leave the ship whenever you wish and your original sea pass is taken from you by security when you exit the ship.   Upon return you go to a Supervisors Desk for B2B's (walking around the lines) and they have you new seapass card.   A quick picture and your own your way.   Norma can tell you what they do if you remain on board.   I believe you stateroom attendant delivers a new card to you.

 

For Foreign ports where they have to zero out the ship.   Basically the same if going ashore.    If staying aboard you meet at a location with other B2B's at around 10:00 they take you off the ship as a group to clear immigrations.   You are issued a new seapass and photo taken  and you are seated in a lounge until they clear the ship and crew.   About 20 minutes later they escort you back aboard.    Normally they host a special lunch for B2B's onboard.   

Thanks Jim. Very helpful. How long before the ship is scheduled to leave the foreign port do you have to be at the Supervisor's Desk to get your new Seapass card? We have private tours arranged and need to plan for that.

Bill

4 hours ago, h20cruzer said:

Bill they gave everyone a transit pass at the initial meeting for back to backers. You could get off the ship early, when you come back you go to a special line they take your picture and reboard the ship. If you do get off Ship, (sorry I didn’t pay attention since I wasn’t getting off) I think you can’t get back on before a certain time, maybe someone else could chime in. 

Norma, thanks very much. That is  a better process than I have been told about other B2B turnover days on Celebrity. Friends told me that they always give out new seapass cards during turnover day only and about 9-9:30am. Your process sounds much better to allow the B2B people to enjoy a day in the port.

Bill

Norma,

What was the process for getting new seapass cards especially for those getting off the ship? For those on private tours, is it possible to get off the ship by 8:00am?

Thanks, Bill

7 hours ago, h20cruzer said:

Bill we arrived at 7:am, knowing passengers I sure they were lined up before 7am for a ticket. If my memory serves me correctly I thin the first tender was called about 7:30am

Norma

Thanks Norma!

3 hours ago, h20cruzer said:

Tender tickets are handed out starting Around 7:00am, I think it depends on what time the ships is arriving. If you want got get off early be there early. Today tickets were given out in the Cellar Masters on deck 4. They asked you to wait somewhere comfortable till your tender number was call.  Keep in mind you will not be the first people off unless you are a Zenith, in a suite or on a tour. Once the majority of people are off the will make an announcement that tender tickets are no longer needed. You will then proceed to deck 3 and they will escort you to deck 2 and the tender.  Today they started tendering abou 8am and called 50 tenders, yes I said 50 tenders befor the no tender ticket required was announced, that was somewhere around 11-11:15am.

Norma, thanks very much. That is helpful. I know you said that the time the tender tickets are handed out depends on what time the ship is arriving. Since your tickets were handed out starting at 7:00pam, what time did you arrive? I'm trying to get a feel for the relative time to expect them for other port arrival times.

Thanks, Bill

24 minutes ago, h20cruzer said:

Friday Nov 10

We have sailed into Kotor, one word spectacular!!!!!

We met friends last night and ate in the main dining room. It was very good and our waiter was very attentive.

Our plans are to tender into town today once you don’t need a tender ticket, walk around and have a bite of lunch.

Norma

Norma,

Where and when do you get a tender ticket on Eclipse? When do you not need one?

We loved Kotor also. We had a great private tour that took us to 4 or 5 places including a walking tour of the old city.

Thanks, Bill

22 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

We spent a month on the Eclipse in 2016 but haven't been on her since.  But we board on March 10th for a B2B2B so I am enjoying this thread very much.  Will be following closely.

You should check in on the Eclipse March 10th and 24th roll calls. They are very active with lots of great tours, activities, and good people. I don't recall seeing you on either of the roll calls. We are joining a group of good friends but expect to make a lot of new friends like we do on every cruise.

Bill

5 hours ago, Eloise4Ever said:

Hi Bill, I don't remember ever disembarking from Eclipse in the Passport Bar area itself but I'm pretty sure we have disembarked from Deck 3 forward. I have a distinct memory of walking down the cabin corridor on Deck 3 to disembark. Now, we could have been heading to the forward stairs to go down to Deck 2 where a lot of disembarkations take place, but either way the Passport Bar would be a handy meeting place in that scenario. We have also disembarked directly from the Martini Bar area on numerous occasions which would make that a less than ideal spot to meet as half the Martini Bar area is taken up with barriers and card readers. I would recommend Cellar Masters on Deck 4 as a meeting place instead as I never seen disembarkation take place directly from there.

Thanks so much. That is very helpful information.

Bill

Norma, I am learning a lot about Eclipse from your posts. So, thank you. 

As I said before, we have several large cruise critic groups that will be doing tours in South America and plan on meeting in the Passport Bar and Martini Bar about the time the ship docks. I heard today that disembarkation sometimes occurs from deck 3 where the Passport Bar is located. If you have that happen on your cruises, please let me know if it would still be possible for 50-60 people to meet at the Passport Bar or would there be too much confusion.

Thank you,
Bill

6 hours ago, h20cruzer said:

It all depends on which port you are in as to where passengers disembark. My suggestion would be to check with guest relations ahead of time and then make your decision. I would think there would be more room to meet near the Passport Bar rather than the Martini Bar.

Today we are in Livorno and we are disembarking on deck 2 midship. If the ship tendering where you have a tour then usually would be deck 1.

Hope that helps.

Norma

Norma, thanks very much. That helps a lot. It appears that there won't be a problem using the Passport Bar as one of our 2 meeting places for tours. Since we have so many people doing private tours, the meeting location must be designated before the cruise so that is why it is important that we figure this out in advance. If you learn anything else that would indicate that the Passport Bar would not be a good meeting place for private tours please let me know. Hope your cruises continues to go well and look forward to hearing about your experiences.

Thanks, Bill

Norma, thanks for doing this blog. We are doing a B2B on Eclipse in March 2019 from Buenos Aires to San Diego and have not cruised on Eclipse before. Our cruise critic roll call has planned a lot of private tours and need two meeting places for 2 groups of 50-60 people each. We think the Martini Bar is one good location, and are also considering the Passport Bar on Deck 3 on the other side of the ship from Guest Relations. However, we are concerned that area may be too busy when the ship docks and during the time we get the all clear to leave the ship.

We typically meet for the tours at the time the ship docks and leave as soon as we get the all clear. We are concerned about the following and hope you will be able to help us understand how things work upon arrival in each port:

1. Do people disembark from the ship near the Passport Bar on Deck 3? If not, where do they disembark (deck and approximate location)?

2. Is the Passport Bar crowded during the time about 15 minutes before the ship docks and 30 minutes after? If not, then it would seem to be a good meeting place for one of our private tour meeting groups of 50-60 people.

3. If the Passport Bar does not make sense as a meeting place, can you suggest another location (in addition to the Martini Bar) that would work for 50-60 people.

Any information that you can share on the above would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill

Does anyone know how to email the Cruise Director and Loyalty person on Eclipse? We have an upcoming cruise and need to coordinate something.

Thanks, Bill

Great thread! I am very interested in taking a shuttle to the Bears and Raptors. Not so interested in renting a car.

Ginny, I researched everything available for Sitka before our Cruise in 2017. IMO, the best tour is Paul Davis' Gallant Adventures (highest rated) Marine Wildlife Tour. He only takes out 6 people at a time for a 3 hour tour. Part of the description of the tour is as follows:

This marine wildlife tour will take you to see some of Paul's favorite scenic spots while making stops when we encounter notable species ofwildlife such as whales, sea otters, coastal brown bears, bald eagles &endemic sea birds (such as puffins, murres & rhinoceros auklets), stellersea lions and seals hauled out on rocks. While cruising through this maze ofislands, you never really know what will present itself as we pop around acorner and out a narrow passageway! It could be a humpback whale lunge feeding ora bald eagle swooping down after a herring. Or maybe it's a sea otter on itsback cracking a clam or a mother otter with a newborn pup on her belly! Whoknows?? Again, hard to say what amazing site we'll see! One thing is forcertain, however...we will see some great action and have a fantastic time!

It is not cheap. The best tours in Alaska never are.

You will still have time to see some of the other things in the town before or after the tour.

Bill

I just want to have a question clarified. We are considering a half day tour through the ship as the tour operator we have booked with is not getting back to us and I am afraid is unreliable. If we do the half day tour is walking to and from the ship to town an option? It is our last port day on a TA cruise and I would love to have a local lunch. I can have plenty of American food on the ship.

Ginny, we have been to Ponta Delgada 5 times and the best tour operator is Gary Travassos of Azorean Tours. Give him my name and he will treat you well. We have enjoyed a local lunch in Furnas with him several times that is very reasonable with good food. Email me at ortenw at gmail dot com and I can answer your questions and give you other details. IMO the areas of Sao Miguel (the "Green Island") outside the city are more interesting and a full day tour would be a better experience.

Bill

I'm booked for a September cruise on the Emerald and I have read in the forums that there is a small ship excursion while in Tracy Arm that gets closer to the glaciers. However, I've never seen anything about it from Princess. I understand that they sell out quickly.

 

Am I able to book the excursion before I board or is it first come/first serve once on the ship at the excursion desk?

 

 

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Adventure Bound is the best and cheaper than ship tour

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I had to call RCI last night about our reservations and asked them if the March 30th sailing was full. She said no there were plenty of cabins available. We got a really good deal on our sailing.

We are on the 5 night April 30th sailing and paid $538 total for an outside cabin on the 7th deck. We also received enough OBC to cover gratuities and all other miscellaneous expenses so our net cost will be a little less. I thought that was pretty good for 2 people (about $54 / night pp).

Bill

I must agree that the roll calls aren't exactly filling up too quickly for the Empress sailings. I am in two of them for our B2B and they are pretty much vacant except for a few people. What worries me is that when I go to royals uk site to see stateroom availability for the cruises that we are on, it shows a huge percentage of the rooms aren't booked at all. Something along the lines of 50-60 out of the 70 Junior Suite rooms are still vacant. I pretty much have my pick of the litter still, after booking months ago. Hopefully this isn't the case with all room types because RCCL will need to do some serious room selling or drastically discount current prices to fill the ship at this pace. We shall see what happens :eek:

The number of unbooked rooms is surprising. That helps to understand the slow roll calls. It will be interesting to see what RCI does to fill the ship or how much vacancy will happen. No matter what happens I'm looking forward to trying out the ship. It will be a good warm-up before our TA on Navigator and 3 weeks we will spending touring England afterwards.

Bill

Did you get it figured out? I've tried the search feature on my phone and got the same results. Showed all kinds of threads.

 

Which sailing are you on? We will be on 4/7 and 4/11. I have been on all of the "monsters" as well. I share some of the same concerns as we are usually pretty active and like having stuff to do. The smallest class I've sailed was on Voyager. Still A GIANT compared to empress. We will all find out together I suppose haha. As far as the ship movement... I'm sure it will move more than larger ships but still won't be crazy I don't think.

 

I think if there is a big enough presence of younger people on the ship, it will seem a bit more eventful. We are 29 and 30 so are kind of in the middle I suppose. Won't be worried about being in bed at 10 lol.

 

 

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The Empress Roll Calls are located here. Seems like it is taking a while for people to find the roll calls (not sure why since all RCI roll calls by ship name are here, same as they have always been). I started the April 30th roll call here on January 6th and only 6 people have found it so far.

We have been on all RCI class ships except Quantum and prefer the smaller ships. It will be interesting to see what Empress is like and such a short cruise. We normally take cruises that are at least 2 weeks, e.g. Transatlantics (usually B2B), Australia, etc. We jumped on this because it was being refurbished for re-entry to RCI and we have a TA to Europe on Navigator a few days after this sailing. We have never been to the Keys so we are spending a few nights there between sailings.

Bill

They really are not helping their cause by dragging their feet in relation to issueing the FCCs. Its just gonna pee some folk off even further.

 

Apparently the first batch of vouchers are on their way according to a post elsewhere .... http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2135954

Yes, but unfortunately it is consistent with RCI's evolving reputation of under delivering on its promises.

I am sorry to see that this thread has not ended. I was on the cruise. I have traveled on dozens of cruises and many different lines as I am a travel agent who needs to sample the various cruise lines in order to make objective judgments about them for my clients.

 

To put it succinctly, RCI did not meet the standards on this cruise that they set for themselves. It was not the worst cruise I have been on, but it certainly was not close to the best.

 

For those who travel exclusively (or even primarily) on RCI, I can just tell you that other cruise lines would have handled the problems differently. If you don't travel on other cruise lines, and don't want to, hopefully you and RCI have learned a few things from the experience about some of the limitations that the company and this ship have and adjust your travel plans accordingly. If this was your first experience (or one of the first experiences) you have had with the cruise line, let me assure you that the western transatlantic sailing was not typical of RCI.

 

My biggest concern for my clients is how will RCI react in the future when things go wrong, because they will. That is just the way life is. IMHO, the company needs to do a better job of training their staff. They need to be more visible and be more flexible when encountering unexpected problems. That means that RCI must empower some of their employees not just to recite the company's standard line, but truly think about what they would reasonably expect if they were encountering those problems.

 

I think they call that the Golden Rule.

 

No one expects perfection, but they do expect caring.

Well said. This was our biggest disappointment and unlike other RCI cruises with a few problems that were almost always handled appropriately in real time.

I this case corporate put marketing and ship refurbishment schedule ahead of paying passengers, did a lousy job of preparing for two embarkations and one disembarkation, and apparently did not empower the ship staff to address a variety of problems in real time with OBC, free drinks, etc. The ship staff was also not proactive in addressing multiple problems and just seemed to be going through the motions to get the TA cruise finished.

While the 20% voucher will be appreciated by some (it has been more than the 6 weeks promised and still not received by us) it will never make up for the lost faith in RCI that many of us experienced.

I hope that both corporate and the Oasis staff have learned a lesson, but we will wait and see. After monitoring the RCI Diamond and above Chat thread for 6 months, it appears that other very loyal cruisers are very concerned with the way RCI is treating them in many ways and even they are looking at other cruise lines. The drive for increased profit in the short run may cost RCI a lot more in the long run.

Bill

I got a call from Norene in the RCI Executive Office yesterday. I had written a detailed letter to Adam Goldstein right after the cruise and emailed it to him.

It was a good conversation full of apologies, and assurances that Adam Goldstein and Richard Fain read all the letters and that is why they authorized the 20% discount. I got the impression that they did not fully understand or acknowledge the full degree of the problems, but it was nice anyway to get the call.

I asked for the reason that our 20% discount was less than the 25% discount and OBC on Quantum since it appeared that we had more issues. She could not explain that. In my opinion, it may be due to the fact that Lisa (VP Operations) was on Quantum and not Oasis to see the problems first hand, and they may be more concerned about the reputation of Quantum than Oasis.

For those of us who take a lot of TA cruises, this cruise was indeed a disappointment. From the embarkation issues in Rotterdam and Southampton, lack of communication and proactive actions by the ship, RCI decisions to put marketing (700 visitors in both Rotterdam and Southampton, and all those travel agents) ahead of paying passengers (we were told this by Bill Downey, Hotel Manager), a ridiculous 2 week partially completed refurbishment (admitted by Norene that this was a bad decision), CATS dominating the main theater for 12 days, only TA we experienced where there wasn't at least one different entertainment show every day ... we got the general feeling that the ship was just going through the motions and not doing anything special for a TA. It was also the highest price per night that we have paid for a TA even after the 20% discount (we boarded in Rotterdam).

We were happy to receive some acknowledgment by RCI but the 20% discount did not remove the bad taste from this cruise. However, we feel it was a unique situation and look forward to our next cruise on Radiance for 33 nights in Australia/NZ. Our faith in RCI has been damaged but not ruined.

Bill